Information Commissioner's Office

West Midlands Police

17 September 2007, Police and criminal justice

The complainant requested information relating to the numbers of Notices of Intended Prosecutions issued by West Midlands Police (WMP) over a twelve month period. The information sought concerned instances where non-service of the notice was alleged and instances where the notice had been issued more than 13 days after an alleged offence. The Commissioner has determined that WMP may hold information connected with the first part of the request. However, he accepts that in order to determine whether information relevant to that part of the request is actually held, it would be necessary to manually search 93,000 records relating to alleged speeding offences. In relation to part 1 of the request, the Commissioner has concluded that WMP was not under an obligation to comply with section 1(1)(a) because to do so would have exceeded the appropriate limit in section 12 of the Act. The Commissioner has decided that WMP inappropriately denied holding relevant information. He considers that, in accordance with section 17(5), the police should have issued a Refusal Notice refusing to comply with section 1(1)(a), citing the appropriate limit. Further, he considers that WMP failed to provide sufficient advice and assistance in relation to this part of the request as required by section 16. The Commissioner has also determined that WMP does not hold information relevant to the second part of the request. The Central Ticket Office computer cannot generate a Notice of Intended Prosecution after 13 days and the computer would reject an attempt to do this after that period of time. The initial response by WMP that it did not hold this information was in fact correct and complied with section 1(1)(a) of the Act. In relation to both parts of the request the Commissioner has determined that WMP breached section 10 in failing to respond within twenty working days. However, the Commissioner has not ordered WMP to take any remedial steps in this decision notice.

FOI 10: Upheld