FOI 857-2023 / Sept 2023 / Warwickshire hunt
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: 857-2023
I write in connection with your request for information which was received on 18th August 2023 as follows:
As you will be aware on Wednesday December 14th 2022, Warwickshire Police issued a Community Protection Notice (CPN) to the Warwickshire Hunt Limited after repeated anti-social use of public roads in Warwickshire. An appeal against this was to be heard on the 15th and 17th August. I understand that shortly before the hearing your force dropped the CPN, replacing it with a watered-down, non-legally binding ‘protocol’ which the Warwickshire Hunt are under no legal obligation to follow. If this is true I am shocked if this outcome means an alleged illegal hunt is being allowed to continue.
Under the data protection act would you please provide:
Q1. Details of the time and resources spent putting this case together and getting it to court together with the costs incurred both in police time and that of external agencies.
Q2. The reason behind the decision to drop the Community Protection Notice.
Please accept my sincere apologies for the delay in providing the response to your request and for any inconvenience this may have caused. Please find the Warwickshire Police response set out below.
Q1 response: Please be advised that all time spent in the drawing up, and agreement of, the Protocol, was undertaken by Warwickshire Police employees as part of normal duties, and therefore no specific cost code would be assigned. As such, our response to your request is ‘no information held’. I can further advise that no information of this type is held in relation to external agencies.
Q2 response: This information is available within the public domain via a statement issued by Warwickshire Police and is therefore exempt from disclosure by virtue of Section 21 of the Freedom of Information Act – ‘Information Reasonably Accessible by Other Means’. Please see the link below:
Addressing road safety concerns linked to hunt activity | Warwickshire Police
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