Officers Ill Health

  • Reference Number: 1986
  • Date released: 04 August 2009

Request

Ill-health

  • For each of the last three years how many police officers does Cheshire employ?
  • For each of the last three years how many police officers have been fully operational, i.e. able to be deployed to front line duties?
  • For each of the last three years how many police officers have been unable to be deployed to front line duties because of ill-health?
  • For each of the last three years, what proportion of officers unable to be deployed to front line duties because of ill-health is due to:- stress, depression, mental illness, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, substance misuse or work-related injury?
  • For each of the last three years, what is the total cost to the taxpayer of days taken where officers cannot be deployed to front line duties?
  • For each of the last three years, how many days have been lost per year where officers cannot be deployed to front line duties?

Retirement

  • For each of the last three years, how many police officers (not staff) have retired on the grounds of ill health?
  • For each of the last three years, what proportion of officers retiring on the grounds of ill health was caused by:- stress, depression, mental illness, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, substance misuse or work-related injury?
  • For each of the last three years what is the total cost to the taxpayer of officers retiring on the grounds of ill-health?
  • How many police officers facing disciplinary charges retired/resigned on grounds of ill health before disciplinary hearings were completed in each of the past three years?
  • What was the total cost to the taxpayer of officers facing disciplinary charges retiring or resigning on the grounds of ill-health before disciplinary hearings were completed in each of the last three years?
  • In the last three years how many officers have been paid an ill health retirement pension after being dismissed or being required to resign from the force?

Response

Ill-health

For each of the last three years how many police officers does Cheshire employ?

Officer headcount by year

Year Total
2006 / 2007 2260
2007 / 2008 2185
2008 / 2009 2193
Total 6638

please note also that this information is provided by the Home Office up to March 2008, please see Home Office Numbers

For each of the last three years how many police officers have been fully operational, i.e. able to be deployed to front line duties?

Count of officers available for front line duties by year

Year Total
2006 / 2007 2230
2007 / 2008 2162
2008 / 2009 2171
Total 6563

For each of the last three years how many police officers have been unable to be deployed to front line duties because of ill-health?

Restricted / recuperative as of year

Year Total
2006 / 2007 30
2007 / 2008 23
2008 / 2009 22
Total 75

For each of the last three years, what proportion of officers unable to be deployed to front line duties because of ill-health is due to:- stress, depression, mental illness, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, substance misuse or work-related injury?

To provide this information would require a manual examination of personnel files as it is not held electronically. This it is estimated would exceed the appropriate limits. 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.

For each of the last three years, what is the total cost to the taxpayer of days taken where officers cannot be deployed to front line duties?

There is no information held (Please note this information would not be held for several reasons. Firstly, there is not usually any additional cost to the taxpayer, as the provision of a forces budget does not change due to sickness. Secondly, the 'cost to the taxpayer' would include, any other burden placed on other public authorities, such as the NHS.)

For each of the last three years, how many days have been lost per year where officers cannot be deployed to front line duties?

Total number of working days lost by officers on recuperative duties

Year Total
2006 / 2007 4655
2007 / 2008 3378
2008 / 2009 3043
Total 11076

Retirement

For each of the last three years, how many police officers (not staff) have retired on the grounds of ill health?

Ill health retirees

Year Total
2006 / 2007 8
2007 / 2008 14
2008 / 2009 4
Total 26

For each of the last three years, what proportion of officers retiring on the grounds of ill health was caused by:- stress, depression, mental illness, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, substance misuse or work-related injury?

To provide this information would require a manual examination of personnel files as it is not held electronically. This it is estimated would exceed the appropriate limits. 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.

For each of the last three years what is the total cost to the taxpayer of officers retiring on the grounds of ill-health?

There is no information held. (Please note this information would not be held for several reasons. Firstly, there is not usually any additional cost to the taxpayer, as the provision of a forces budget does not change due to sickness. Secondly, the 'cost to the taxpayer' would include, any other burden placed on other public authorities, such as the NHS.)

How many police officers facing disciplinary charges retired/resigned on grounds of ill health before disciplinary hearings were completed in each of the past three years?

None

What was the total cost to the taxpayer of officers facing disciplinary charges retiring or resigning on the grounds of ill-health before disciplinary hearings were completed in each of the last three years?

There is no information held.

In the last three years how many officers have been paid an ill health retirement pension after being dismissed or being required to resign from the force?

None

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