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FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: FOI-498-2023
I write in connection with your request for information which was received on 10th May 2023 as follows:
Specifically, I am requesting details of all used police vehicles sold by Warwickshire Police over the past five years. The details I would like are as follows:
Please accept my sincere apologies for the delay in providing the response to your request and for any inconvenience this may have caused you. Please find the Warwickshire Police response set out below.
Response: Please be advised that the information requested at Q5 of your request is not held centrally and is therefore not available in a readily retrievable format. In order to determine the last MOT date for each vehicle sold it would be necessary to access the records of each vehicle on an individual basis and record the resulting information. The business area has advised that this would take at least 6 minutes per record and that 175 vehicles have been sold during the stated period. This equates to 17.5 hours of work to determine such information alone and, when added to the work already undertaken on this request to retrieve the remainder of the information, this would equate to in excess of 18 hours of work and would therefore exceed the fees limit (£450) as stated in the Freedom of Information (Fees and Appropriate Limit) Regulations 2004.
In accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000, this letter acts as a Refusal Notice for this part of the request and if one part of a request exceeds the fees limit then S12 of the Act applies to the whole request.
In accordance with Section 16 of the Act I have a duty to provide advice and assistance in relation to your request; however, due to the amount of records which would need to be examined, I am unable to suggest a way to pare down your request into one which could be managed within the fees limit unless you were to reduce the period requested for this element of your request.
As a gesture of goodwill I have provided a response to Q2, Q3, Q4, Q6 & Q7, which was retrieved before it was realised that the fees limit would be exceeded, and which are set out below. Please note that provision of the information should not be taken as a precedent that additional information would be supplied outside of the time/fees legislation for any subsequent requests.
Please note that, with regard to Q1, this information is exempt from disclosure by virtue of the following exemptions:
Section 31(1) – Law Enforcement
Section 40(2) – Personal Information
Section 40 is an absolute class-based exemption, which does not require evidence of the harm disclosure would cause and does not require consideration of a public interest test. That being said, where Section 40(2) is engaged, in order to make the exemption absolute there needs to be evidence that a Data Protection Principle would be breached by disclosure.
This exemption is engaged where disclosure of information relates to personal data of a third party, or could lead to the identification of an individual, either from that information alone or combined with any other information from within the Police Service or public domain. In this case, vehicles sold by auction are frequently purchased by members of the public and the VRM is the personal information of that individual.
The ICO, in their decision notice FS50793373, stated the following:
“29. Following on from this, a disclosure of any VRM data which refers to
vehicles which have since been sold on to private individuals would also
be a disclosure of personal data, relating to the new owner of the
vehicle. A motivated individual with access to the VRM number of a
vehicle would be able to take steps to identify the current owner of that
vehicle.
finding that a disclosure of VRM’s without any other identifiers is a
disclosure of personal data for the purposes of the DPA as information
on the registered owner of the vehicle.4
from which a specific individual, the owner, can be identified, and
provide biographical information about that individual; primarily that
they own that vehicle, that their vehicle used to be used as a taxi, and
that the vehicle was not brand new when it was purchased by that
individual.
vehicle is a disclosure of personal data where the owner of the vehicle is
a living individual.”
Such a disclosure would breach individuals’ rights under the Data Protection Act 2018, in particular Article 5(1) of the GDPR which states that personal data shall be processed lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner in relation to the data subject.
Section 31 is a prejudice based qualified exemption which requires both evidence of harm and public interest considerations to be articulated. Please find these set out below.
Harm
Disclosure of VRNs could be of intelligence value to persons with criminal or malicious intent. Decommissioned police vehicles are sold at public auction and will reappear in domestic use, usually driven by members of the public. Lists of VRNs accessible by criminals, such as Organised Crime Gangs (even if out of date), may potentially expose unaware members of public to direct challenge and/or risk of harm.
Section 31 - Factors Favouring Disclosure
Disclosure may lead to a better informed public.
Section 31 - Factors Against Disclosure
The Police Service has a duty to ensure that the prevention and detection of crime, apprehension or prosecution of offenders, and administration of justice is carried out appropriately and effectively. Disclosing information that would potentially expose unaware members of the public to direct challenge and/or risk of harm is in direct conflict with that duty.
Balance Test
For a public interest test, issues that favour disclosure need to be measured against issues that favour non-disclosure.
Other than a better informed public, there is no further tangible benefit to the public interest in identifying registration numbers of sold vehicles.
The ability to deliver effective law enforcement and protect the public is of paramount importance and Warwickshire Police will not divulge information if to do so would have an adverse effect on the force’s ability to prevent and detect crime.
Therefore, on balance, it is considered that the public interest in providing the information is outweighed by the potential impact release would have and this represents a refusal notice for information in relation to disclosure of registration numbers.
Q2, Q3, Q4, Q6 & Q7 response: Please see the attached sheet.
When reviewing the information please note that there are 3 vehicles which have been sold to another police force and any remaining details are exempt from disclosure by virtue of Section 31(1) – Law Enforcement.
As stated above, Section 31 is a prejudice based qualified exemption which requires both evidence of harm and public interest considerations to be articulated. Please find these set out below.
Harm
Once a vehicle has been sold to another force there is no way of determining the purpose for which it would be used by that force. It is standard practice for forces to withhold information in relation to vehicles used in certain specialist/covert roles. If information was disclosed in response to this FOI request such information could then be cross checked against published fleet lists which could potentially lead to the identification of vehicles which that force would consider harmful to disclose.
Section 31 - Factors Favouring Disclosure
The public are entitled to know how funds are used and disclosure of the information would provide information in relation to amounts vehicles are being sold at.
Section 31 - Factors Against Disclosure
The Police Service has a duty to ensure that the prevention and detection of crime, apprehension or prosecution of offenders, and administration of justice is carried out appropriately and effectively. Disclosing such information could be detrimental to another force’s ability to carry out their core function of law enforcement and protecting the public from harm.
Balance Test
For a public interest test, issues that favour disclosure need to be measured against issues that favour non-disclosure.
Other than transparency in relation to public funds, there is no further tangible benefit to the public interest in identifying information in relation to those vehicles sold to another force.
The ability to deliver effective law enforcement and protect the public is of paramount importance and Warwickshire Police will not divulge information if to do so would have an adverse effect on the ability of the police service to prevent and detect crime.
Therefore, on balance, it is considered that the public interest in providing the information is outweighed by the potential impact release would have and this represents a refusal notice for information in relation vehicles sold to other police forces.
Every effort has been made to ensure that the information provided is as accurate as possible.
Your attention is drawn to the below which details your right of complaint.
Should you have any further enquiries concerning this matter, please write or email the Freedom of Information Unit quoting the reference number above.
Yours sincerely
Freedom of Information Officer
Freedom of Information Unit
Warwickshire Police
PO Box 4
Leek Wootton
Warwickshire
CV35 7QB