FOI 15568-25 - SARs
Request:
1. How many Data Subject Access Requests (DSAR's) have been submitted to Northamptonshire Police between 1st January 2023 and 6th August 2025?
2. Of those DSAR's submitted, how many were not actioned and completed within one calendar month and what is the average response time in days for those which did not comply with legislation?
3. What remedies has Northamptonshire Police put in place to ensure improved compliance with Data Protection Legislation?
4. Between 1st January 2023 and 6th August 2025, have Northamptonshire Police Force, or any of its officers or employees, been subject of any warning, reprimand, enforcement notice or penalty issued by the Information Commissioner's Office and if financial penalties have been imposed how much are they?
Response:
Section 17 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 requires Northamptonshire Police, when refusing to provide such information (because the information is exempt), to provide the applicant with a notice which:
(a) states that fact,
(b) specifies the exemption in question and
(c) states (if that would not otherwise be apparent) why the exemption applies.
The exemption applicable to the information requested is:
Section 12(1) – Exemption where cost of compliance exceeds appropriate limit
The information you are requesting is not held by Northamptonshire Police in any reasonably retrievable form. The only means of establishing information of the nature you are requesting in Question 2 would be by way of manual examination of each Subject Access Request record to determine firstly whether it was not completed within one calendar month, and secondly whether it was not completed within the legally required timeframe and by how long.
A request may have been answered after more than one month, for example, because of an extension applied to a complex request as per regulation. Furthermore, if a request is overdue but has not yet been completed, its response time will be still unknown.
It is my assessment that the cost of providing you with the information requested would exceed the 'appropriate level' as set out in the Freedom of Information (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004.
My assessment is that it would cost 2044 (number of records) x 3 minutes each (minimum) = over 102 hours at £25 per hour to respond to your request, which exceeds the 'appropriate limit' (currently £450 for 'prescribed costs').
In view of the above, and in accordance with the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, please take this letter as a Refusal Notice.
You may wish to refine and resubmit your request so that it reduces the costs shown above and is then within the 'appropriate limit' shown above. I cannot think of a means to refine the request in order to provide the information you are seeking, but if you would like some further information about how to proceed with your request then please contact:
Due to the different methods of recording information across forces, a specific response from one constabulary should not be seen as an indication of what information could be supplied (within cost) by another. Systems used for recording these figures are not generic, nor are the procedures used locally in capturing the data. For this reason, responses between forces may differ, and should not be used for comparative purposes.
Although excess cost removes the Force’s obligations under the Freedom of Information Act, as a gesture of goodwill, I have supplied information relevant to your request which was retrieved or available before it was realised that the fees limit would be exceeded. I trust this is helpful, but it does not affect our legal right to rely on the fees regulations for the remainder of your request.
Question 1 – 2044
Question 3 – The unit in which Data Subject Rights sits is undergoing restructuring, which includes an increase in staffing. Recruitment is still ongoing.
Question 4 – No.
For your information, further information on ICO enforcement action can be found on the ICO website.
The numerical data presented in this response is an un-audited snapshot of un-published data sourced from "live" systems and is subject to the interpretation of the original request by the individual extracting the data.
The figures provided therefore are our best interpretation of relevance of data to your request, but you should be aware that the collation of figures for ad hoc requests may have limitations and this should be taken into account when the data is used.
If you decide to write an article/use the enclosed data, we ask you to take into consideration the factors highlighted in this document so as to not mislead members of the public or official bodies or misrepresent the relevance of the whole or any part of this disclosed material.