Sudden Deaths South Cheshire

I would like to request figures relating to the following from 1 April 2008 to 31 March 2009

1. The number of Police Duty Call Outs to sudden deaths in the South Cheshire Area and the names of the undertakers requested by the Police to attend.
2. The number of family requests and the names of the associated funeral directors in the South Cheshire Area for the same period.

In accordance with section 1 (1) (b) of the Act our response is provided below;

Question 1

Question 2

We are unable to supply information in relation to this question. The information, if held, would be recorded on the incident log in free text. To extract this information would require a manual search and examination which it is estimated would exceed the appropriate limit. The appropriate limit is defined in the Data Protection and Freedom of Information (Fees and Appropriate Limit) Regulations 2004, which is covered by statutory Instrument Number 3244 of 2004. Furthermore, Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 allows a public authority to refuse to respond to a request for information where the cost of compliance would exceed the appropriate limit as defined by the above mentioned regulations.

We would add that there is no guarantee that the information is always recorded on the incident log. The data is recorded initially on the Coroners form but it is a free text hand written entry. That data is not transferred to the data base and of course as you will no doubt be aware, families do change their minds on occasion.