FOI 15938-25 Spend on Traditional Forensics

Request to Northamptonshire Police

Please provide the total amount in £ (excluding VAT) that your force has spent on external physical (traditional) forensic science services. Do not include any spend on digital forensics. I request that this is broken down into categories based on the Lot Code and description specified in the contract(s) awarded to your private forensic science provider suppliers. For each category, please include:

1. The Lot Code (as per the contract)

2. The Lot description (e.g., DNA Crime Stains)

3. The total spend (£, ex VAT)

4. The supplier name

For example:

Lot X | DNA Crime Stains | £1,000,000 | Eurofins Forensic Services Lot Y | Toxicology | £500,000 | Cellmark Forensic Services

Response

Unfortunately, Northamptonshire Police can neither confirm nor deny that it holds the information requested because it is not recorded in an easily identifiable format. Compliance with your request would require our analysts to manually review a minimum of 9155 records created across the specified period to establish if any fall under the scope of your request.

We estimate this would take approximately 2 minutes per record, exceeding the appropriate cost limit of £450 which engages an exemption under s12(2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the Act).

Accordingly, please accept this Refusal Notice under s17(1) of the Act. We always strive to provide the highest level of service that we can with the finite resources at our disposal. However, due to the breadth of information you are requesting, we are unable to offer any advice or assistance as to how we can help you redefine your request to bring it within the cost parameters.