Donations, Gifts and Sponsorships 2017-19

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Keywords

Gifts, Hospitality, Donation, gratitude, thanks

Publication number

PUB 1155

Publication statement

Please note that this information is correct as at 8th March 2021 and may be subject to change. Essex Police aim to review and update this publication annually.

As with all publications of information by Essex Police, please note caveats may apply regarding the accuracy of data.

Title

Donations, Gifts & Sponsorships 2017-19

Date range

April 2017 - June 2020

Background information

In the interests of transparency and openness Essex Police publish gifts and hospitality details please see below for further details.

FOI publication

Thank you for your enquiry which has been logged under the above reference.

Section 1 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) places two duties on public authorities. Unless exemptions apply, the first duty at Section 1(1)(a) is to confirm or deny whether the information specified in a request is held. The second duty at Section 1(1)(b) is to disclose information that has been confirmed as being held. Where exemptions are relied upon Section 17 of FOIA requires that we provide the applicant with a notice which: a) states that fact b) specifies the exemption(s) in question and c) states (if that would not otherwise be apparent) why the exemption applies.

In respect of your enquiry:

For the financial years 2017/18, 2018/19 and 2019/20, details on donations, gifts & sponsorships that have been received by the police force.

For each, please could you provide the following:

The financial year it was received
The sum (or value) of the donation, gift, sponsorship or loan
If known what the donation, gift, sponsorship or loan was used for (e.g. passed onto specific team, or sponsorship was for XYZ event)

Additionally, could you provide the following for each:

If it was a company organisation or group, please could you give their name for each donation, gift, sponsorship or loan
If it was an individual, please could you give their full name for each donation, gift, sponsorship or loan

Having completed enquiries within Essex Police and in respect of Section 1(1)(a), Essex Police does hold information relating to your request. Under Section 1(1)(b) the below has been provided in relation to your FOI.

Essex Police have checked their financial records and for the financial years in question, Essex Police can confirm that there is no evidence of having received any gifts, donations or sponsorship by third parties for operational purposes in that period.

No further information will be provided by virtue section 21 and 22, as gifts to officers are regularly published.

Section 21 - Information Reasonably Accessible by Other Means

(1)Information which is reasonably accessible to the applicant otherwise than under section 1 is exempt information.

(2)For the purposes of subsection (1) -

(a)information may be reasonably accessible to the applicant even though it is accessible only on payment, and

(b)information is to be taken to be reasonably accessible to the applicant if it is information which the public authority or any other person is obliged by or under any enactment to communicate (otherwise than by making the information available for inspection) to members of the public on request, whether free of charge or on payment.

Section 21 is an absolute exemption and where information falls within the scope of an absolute exemption, a public authority is not obliged to communicate it to an applicant and is also not obliged to comply with the duty to confirm or deny the existence of the information requested.

Section 22 - Information intended for future publication

(1) Information is exempt information if—

(a)the information is held by the public authority with a view to its publication, by the authority or any other person, at some future date (whether determined or not),

(b)the information was already held with a view to such publication at the time when the request for information was made, and

(c)it is reasonable in all the circumstances that the information should be withheld from disclosure until the date referred to in paragraph (a).

The exemption is a qualified exemption, meaning that a public interest test must be conducted in determining whether to maintain the exemption, or in other words, whether the public interest most favours publishing the information immediately or at a later date.

There is an obvious public interest in the disclosure of the information in terms of transparency and accountability, which are the cornerstones of the FOI legislation. There is no dispute that this information should be made available to public scrutiny and this has been the case in the past. However, there is equally a powerful public interest in ensuring that public resources are used effectively, as observed by Judge Wikley in a recent Upper Tribunal decision, albeit involving the application of a different exemption.

In this context it is important to bear in mind that the right to information under FOIA is a significant but not an overriding right in a modern democratic society. As has already been noted, it is a right that is qualified or circumscribed in various ways. Those restrictions reflect other countervailing public interests, including the importance of an efficient system of public administration.
(Judge Wikely in ICO vs. Devon CC and Dransfield 2012), para. 35.)

For the public interest to fall in favour of immediate disclosure, there would have to be some pressing reason why it would be unreasonable for the public to wait until the authority was ready to publish the material. There is no indication that Essex Police is aware of that there is any pressing need that would warrant immediate publication in this instance. Consequently the balance of the public interest falls in favour of maintaining the exemption and this response therefore acts as a refusal notice to provide the information you have requested at this time.

Having said that and in an effort to assist, please see the below in relation to your FOI request:

https://www.essex.police.uk/foi-ai/af/accessing-information/published-items/?q=gifts+and+hospitality

Essex Police trusts that the links and information provided is of assistance.

Thank you for your interest in Essex Police.

Kind regards

Information Rights | Information Management Department | Information Rights Section | Essex Police

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