Request for information on misconduct hearing of two suspended officers
Reference: 23025
Date Added: Wednesday, November 22, 2023
Category:
Disclosure Details
Thank you for your recent email requesting information under the Freedom of Information Act. Please find our response to your request below.
Two duties are placed on public authorities under Section 1 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA). Notwithstanding applicable exemptions, 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, Section1(1) (b), is to disclose information that has been confirmed as being held.
You have requested the following information:
Incident involving Chief Superintendent Mark Warrender and Acting Assistant Chief Constable Marc Budden in June 2019.
Q1. Please could you provide me with a timeline from June 2019 right up to the misconduct hearing in September 2022, which I believe was held in the HQ of Avon and Somerset Police, detailing all the key events.
Section 40(2) Personal Information – refusal notice
An exemption is applicable to the information you have requested for this question which can be found at Section 40(2) Personal Information of the Freedom of Information Act. Section 40 is an absolute exemption and is not subject to a public interest test.
The OPCC is withholding the information you have requested on the basis that the exemption contained in s40(2) of the FOIA applies in that the information you have requested contains 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 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"
The proceedings of the hearing were not held in public and therefore it would not be appropriate for us to share this information under the FOIA. Some information relating to the hearing can be found online which may assist you including Police Professional | Officers found guilty of gross misconduct over retirement party incident
Q2. Please could you provide me with a ball park figure of the monies received by Warrender and Budden whilst they were suspended on full pay.
No information held.
Q3. Please can you give me ball park figures for Warrender lump sum and annual pension when he retired days before the conclusion of the misconduct hearing.
No information held.
The Freedom of Information Act is a public disclosure regime, not a private regime. Any information disclosed under the Act is thereafter deemed to be in the public domain, and therefore freely available to the general public and will be published on the OPCC website.
You have the right to appeal our decision if you think it is incorrect. Should you feel dissatisfied with this response or the way in which your request was handled, information on the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner for Gwent FOI Appeals Procedure can be found on our website. Your appeal must be submitted within 40 working days.
If you remain dissatisfied after an internal review decision, you have the right to apply to the Information Commissioner’s Office. The Commissioner is an independent regulator whose details can be found using the following link https://ico.org.uk/
You can also write to the Information Commissioner’s Office at the following address:
Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF