Expenditure on Hospitality, Events and Catering

1. Expenditure by your police force on hospitality for the years 2006-07, 2007-08, 2008-09 and 2009-10.
2. Expenditure by your police force on events for the years 2006-07, 2007-08, 2008-09 and 2009-10.
3. Expenditure by your police force on a. ) catering and b.) food subsidies for the years 2006-07, 2007-08, 2008-09 and 2009-10.

Further to my communication of 30th November I would like to clarify some aspects of my request. I would also like to remind you that I have asked for these requests to be handled as individual requests.

1. I asked for expenditure on hospitality by your police force. By hospitality I would include expenditure such as, but not limited to, money spent on alcohol, drinks, food, decorations, music, entertainment, room and venue hire, transport and decorations for visiting guests, dignitaries, politicians as well as for the families of staff and officers. I would like the information to be broken down by transaction as far as practicable.
2. I asked for expenditure on events - I would include here expenditure for events organised for the staff and officers of the police force such as, but not limited to, spending on conferences, away days, team-building events, staff parties, celebrations, galas, centenaries, ceremonies, christmas and other religious parties, .
3. I asked for expenditure on catering and food subsidies - I meant here money spent on food and drink including alcohol, coffee and tea, for officers and staff of the police force. I would not include, for example, food for those detained. By subsidies I included money spent reducing the cost of, underwriting the cost of or otherwise contributing towards, for example, vending machines, buffets and canteens etc.

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

I can confirm that the Cheshire Constabulary holds the information you have requested. In considering whether or not your requests should be aggregated or dealt with separately I have determined that your request is concerned entirely with expenditure by the Constabulary and as such no part of your request should be considered separately.

Therefore in accordance with section 12 (1) of the Act we are unable to provide the information you have requested as to do so 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.

I have arrived at this decision after taking into account the work required to not only to determine if the information was held but also to locate, retrieve and extract the information from other information in order to disclose it. In discussions with our Finance department its clear that researching question 2 is the principle area of concern as it would in the main require the manual examination of documents to determine the reasons for the expenditure. This is also a factor with some other areas of your request. Budgets are not centralised nor are there specific budget codes for the categories of expenditure you mention, for example room hire is catered for but the reasons for room hire could be numerous. We think that we could provide answers for questions 1 & 2 if you would care to consider refining your request.