Overtime Payments

1. The total number of staff who have received overtime payments in each of the last 3 financial years (2008/09, 2009/10, 2010/11).
2. The total number of staff who have received payments for premium shifts (i.e. where staff are paid more than the usual rate for shifts with late notice, bank holidays etc) in each of the last 3 financial years (2008/09, 2009/10, 2010/11).
3. The total hours of overtime worked by the whole force in each of the last 3 financial years (2008/09, 2009/10, 2010/11).
4. The total number of premium shifts worked (i.e. where staff are paid more than the usual rate for shifts with late notice, bank holidays etc) by the force in each of the last 3 financial years (2008/09, 2009/10, 2010/11).
5. The total hours worked in premium shifts (i.e. where staff are paid more than the usual rate for shifts with late notice, bank holidays etc) by the force in each of the last 3 financial years (2008/09, 2009/10, 2010/11).
6. The total amount paid in overtime in each of the last 3 financial years (2008/09, 2009/10, 2010/11).
7. The total amount paid for premium shifts (i.e. where staff are paid more than the usual rate for shifts with late notice, bank holidays etc) in each of the last 3 financial years (2008/09, 2009/10, 2010/11).

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

From our preliminary assessment, we estimate that compliance with your request would exceed the appropriate costs limit under section 12 of the Freedom of information Act 2000. This is currently £450. The reason for this is based on the cost of locating and retrieving the information relating to your questions 4 & 5. It would require a member of staff to manually examine every overtime claim form submitted for the periods requested which it is estimated would take approximately 40 hours of work and would exceed the appropriate limit. The Cheshire Constabulary is therefore refusing your request.

Section 17 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 requires the Cheshire Constabulary, when refusing to provide such information (because the information is exempt) to provide you 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.

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 can say that in respect of your remaining questions many of them have been answered in previous disclosures going back to 2009, please see the following web page links:

Previous Disclosure 2843 December 2010

Previous Disclosure 2644 August 2010

Previous Disclosure 2545 June 2010

Previous Disclosure 2500 April 2010

Previous Disclosure 2242 December 2009

Previous Disclosure 2011 August 2009

Previous Disclosure 1639 January 2009

We do not envisage any difficulty with your remaining questions that are not covered by previous disclosures