2022/24879 - Covid Breaches

REQUEST

 

- The number and value of fixed penalty notices given for beaches of Coronavirus restrictions involving the following: garden party, birthday party, house/flat party, work party, Christmas party, funeral. Please indicate the number and value of fixed penalty notices per activity.

 

- Details of fixed penalty notices involving the above stated events (i.e. garden party) which took place on the following dates: 20 May 2020, 18 June 2020, 19 June 2020, 13 November 2020, 17 December 2020, 18 December 2020, 14 January 2021, 16 April 2021

 

RESPONSE

 

- The number and value of fixed penalty notices given for beaches of Coronavirus restrictions involving the following: garden party, birthday party, house/flat party, work party, Christmas party, funeral. Please indicate the number and value of fixed penalty notices per activity.

 

We have a total of 275 Covid 19 breaches recorded on Niche from 2019 to today (10/03/2022).

 

Unfortunately, we cannot provide the value of fixed penalty notices, as it will exceed the 18-hour time limit to complete the request. Since 2019, there have been 275 Covid breaches recorded. In order to retrieve the data, each record would need to be reviewed. It would take approximately five minutes to review each individual record, which would equate to 22 hours of research. Therefore, a Section 12 Excess Cost exemption has been applied.

 

Section 12 – Excess Cost

 

The exemption applicable to the information you have requested for this question can be found at Section 12(1) of the Act and this refusal notice is issued under Section 17.

 

Section 12(1) “does not oblige a public authority to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying with the request would exceed the appropriate limit.” 

 

In the case of a police force, the appropriate limit is set at £450, which is calculated at £25 per hour (i.e., 18 hours). Gwent Police would have to conduct a manual search to find and extract the information for this question. This would take more than 18 hours of staff time therefore we are unable to answer this question and the exemption is engaged.

 

 

- Details of fixed penalty notices involving the above stated events (i.e., garden party) which took place on the following dates: 20 May 2020, 18 June 2020, 19 June 2020, 13 November 2020, 17 December 2020, 18 December 2020, 14 January 2021, 16 April 2021

 

Section 40(2) Personal Information

 

The exemption applicable to the information you have requested for this question can be found at Section 40(2) Personal Information, of the Act and this refusal notice is issued under Section 17.

Gwent Police is withholding the information you have requested on the basis that the exemption contained in s 40(2) of the Freedom of Information Act applies in that the information you have requested is personal data of third parties and the disclosure of the data would breach one of the principles contained in the Data Protection Act. The relevant principle is the first principle which states that:

Personal data shall be processed fairly and lawfully and in particular shall not be processed unless –

(a) at least one of the conditions in Schedule 2 is met and

(b) in the case of sensitive personal data, at least one of the conditions in Schedule 3 is met

It is only necessary to consider (a) in respect of the information requested. The relevant condition in Schedule 2 is condition 6 which states that:

"The processing is necessary for the purposes of legitimate interests pursued by the data controller or by the third party or parties to whom the data are disclosed, except where the processing is unwarranted in any particular case by reason of prejudice to the rights and freedoms or legitimate interests of the data subject"