FOI 1277-2024/25- Police protection

Request:

We previously sent you an FOI (FOI-4924-25-1200-000) relating to the Police Protection power of Sec 46 of the Children's Act 1989, 'where a Police Officer has reasonable grounds to believe a child is likely to suffer significant harm, they may remove the child to suitable accommodation' that we have not yet received a response to. From correspondences with other forces, we understand that question 2 and 3 specifically may require a lot of manual review that may exceed the appropriate limit of cost.

Q1. We would therefore be extremely grateful if you might be able to provide a response solely to question 1 "From 1st January 2024 to 31st December 2024 - How many instances have there been of a child being taken into Police Protection in your force?" if this is possible.

Response:

Extent and Result of Searches to Locate Information

To locate the information relevant to your request searches were conducted within North Yorkshire Police. 

I can confirm that the information you have requested is held by North Yorkshire Police. 

Decision

The information you have requested is published on the North Yorkshire Police website under the following link:

FOI 1094-2024/25- Police protection | North Yorkshire Police

I have therefore decided to exempt providing you with a response to question 1 pursuant to Section 21 Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the Act).

Section 17 of the Act requires North Yorkshire Police, when refusing to provide such information (because the information is exempt) to provide you 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.

Section 21 – Information Reasonably Accessible by Other Means

Section 21 is an absolute class based exemption and I am not required to consider the harm or public interest when applying this exemption.

Pursuant to Section 17(1) of the Act this letter acts as a Refusal Notice in response to your request.

Please note that systems used for recording information are not generic, nor are the procedures used locally in capturing the data.  It should be noted therefore that this force’s response to your questions should not be used for comparison purposes with any other responses you may receive.