POLICE OFFICER SICKNESS /INJURED AT WORK

Reference number: 
20110225
Request date: 
04/2011
Response date: 
25/05/2011 (All day)
Request details: 

As of today's date, April 25, how many police officers are currently off work 
on long term sick leave and how many of these people are off due to being 
injured at work or in the line of duty.

- What do you class as long term sick?
- Could you provide a breakdown of males and females off sick and injured at 
work.
- Could you provide figures for how many people have been off sick and 
injured so far this year and for 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010, with a 
male/ female breakdown please.
- Do you hold details on the nature of the injuries suffered by officers at 
work and under what circumstances?
Exemptions Applied: 

S.12: Exemption Where Cost of Compliance Exceed Appropriate Limit

SYP response: 

Your request has now been considered. I am unable to supply the information you have requested.

Section 17 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 requires South Yorkshire Police, when refusing to provide such information (because the information is exempt), to provide you the applicant with a notice which:  
states that fact,
specifies the exemption in question and
states (if that would not otherwise be apparent) why the exemption applies.
The following exemption applies to the disclosure of the information:
Section 12 – Exemption where cost of compliance exceeds appropriate limit
In coming to this decision I have interpreted the section of your request "- Do you hold details on the nature of the injuries suffered by officers at  work and under what circumstances?"as being a request for disclosure of the details of the nature of injuries and the circumstances under which the injuries were sustained.
In order to determine if the information is held and then locate, retrieve and extract such held information it would be necessary to review 3161 recods.
The Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004 provide that the cost limit for non central government public authorities is £450. This must be calculated at the rate of £25 per hour, providing an effective time limit of 18 hours.
Guidance from the Information Commissioner to public authorities is that where one part of a request is reasonably estimated to exceed the appropriate limit then the authority is not obliged to consider or comply with the remainder of the request up to the point at which the appropriate limit has been reached. This guidance is contained within the penultimate paragraph of page 4 of the guidance which can be found at: -

If you feel your endeavours can be achieved within the appropriate limit by refining your request South Yorkshire Police would be more than happy to consider any further request.
However in coming to this decision it was necessary to locate, retrieve and extract some of the information you have requested. I am therefore prepared to release this information as a gesture of goodwill. It must be clearly understood that this release is OUTSIDE THE SCOPE OF THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT AND DOES NOT AFFECT OUR LEGAL RIGHT TO RELY ON THE FEES REGULATIONS FOR THE REMAINDER OF YOUR REQUEST. I would also point out that the provision of this information in this way should not be taken as indicative of the manner in which future such requests may be handled.
 
As of today's date, April 25, how many police officers are currently off work 
on long term sick leave and how many of these people are off due to being             sick   41          injured    0
injured at work or in the line of duty.
- What do you class as long term sick?          Over 28 days
- Could you provide a breakdown of males and females off sick and injured at 
work.
- Could you provide figures for how many people have been off sick and 
injured so far this year and for 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010, with a 
male/ female breakdown please.

     SICK    INJURED
         M  F   M  F
2005/2006   1102  463   456  137
2006/2007   1163  467   416  133
2007/2008   1238  505   412  142
2008/2009   1073  507   404  157
2009/2010   967  474   359  132
2010/2011   920  451   297  99
APR 2011   113  67   10  7