Received: 2 December 2019

I need to know how many Employment tribunals the federation has funded solicitors for over the last 5 years. I also request information on how many were refused legal representation.

Responded: 19 December 2019

The Police Federation of England and Wales can confirm that we hold part of the information you require; however, Section 12(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 states that we are not obliged to comply with a request for information if it is estimated that the cost would exceed the appropriate limit. Guidance on this exemption can be found at the Information Commissioner’s Office website here.

In order to obtain the information, it would involve a significant search of our systems and we would need to interrogate every single file within each claim independently. The number of Employment Tribunal requests over the last 5 years total 1,618. We estimate that it could take in excess of 60 hours to examine, review and record the information. Therefore, the cost of complying with this request will exceed the cost and time limits specified.