Police Federation

FOI 00307 - Legal Expenses


Request:

Received: 9 January 2023

I am writing to you under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to request the following information from the Police Federation:

1) The total spend legal budget of the Police Federation of England and Wales by year from 2012 to now (2022 or 2023 if available). I would also appreciate being informed if the annual budget allocated for legal cases is always spent, or whether there were any budget surpluses or deficits in the aforementioned years.
 
2) The total number of legal cases and amount spent by the Police Federation of England and Wales by year since 2012 in defending officers accused of misconduct or gross misconduct. If the accusation is part of a wider array of accusations (i.e. misconduct and a criminal offence) please state that.
 
3)  The total number of legal cases and amount spent by the Police Federation of England and Wales by year since 2012 in defending officers facing criminal charges. If the accusation is part of a wider array of accusations (i.e. misconduct and a criminal offence) please state that.
 
4) The total number of legal cases and amount spent by the Police Federation of England and Wales by year since 2012 in defending officers facing charges for any of the 71 offences listed under the Sexual Offences Act 2003. As above, if the accusation is part of a wider array of accusations (i.e. misconduct and a criminal offence) please state that.
 
5) A list of the ten cases in 2022 that incurred the most financial cost for the Police Federation of England, what that amount was in each case and the nature of the accusations in question and police forces involved (with as much or as little detail as the federation believes would not break privacy rules).

Response:

Responded: 31 January 2023

QUESTION: 

The total spend legal budget of the Police Federation of England and Wales by year from 2012 to now (2022 or 2023 if available). I would also appreciate being informed if the annual budget allocated for legal cases is always spent, or whether there were any budget surpluses or deficits in the aforementioned years 

RESPONSE: 

Police Federation of England and Wales (PFEW) confirms that it does hold some data in relation to this.  PFEW has no recorded surpluses or deficits to the legal budget.  PFEW only holds data on legal budgets from 2017 onwards. 

 

 

2017 

2018 

2019 

2020 

2021 

2022 

2023 

Budget 

10,016,000 

9,403,200 

10,403,200 

10,049,147 

10,970,000 

11,328,004 

12,059,515 

 

 

QUESTION: 

The total number of legal cases and amount spent by the Police Federation of England and Wales by year since 2012 in defending officers accused of misconduct or gross misconduct . If the accusation is part of a wider array of accusations (i.e. misconduct and a criminal offence) please state that. 

RESPONSE: 

PFEW confirms that it does hold some data in relation to this.  Costs and claims are not recorded in the manner suggested above.  The information PFEW can provide is below. 

 

 

Gross Misconduct 

Misconduct 

2012 

273 

24 

2013 

536 

20 

2014 

569 

12 

2015 

559 

20 

2016 

531 

21 

2017 

417 

17 

2018 

367 

51 

2019 

475 

44 

2020 

461 

74 

2021 

378 

65 

2022 

526 

72 

2023 

7 

1 

 

 

 

 

QUESTION: 

The total number of legal cases and amount spent by the Police Federation of England and Wales by year since 2012 in defending officers facing criminal charges. If the accusation is part of a wider array of accusations (i.e. misconduct and a criminal offence) please state that 

 

RESPONSE: 

PFEW confirms that it does hold data in relation to this.  Please see below for data for criminal charges.  As previously stated, costs and claims are not recorded in the manner suggested above. 

 

2012 

2013 

2014 

2015 

2016 

2017 

2018 

2019 

2020 

2021 

2022 

2023 

Grand Total 

235 

427 

783 

600 

369 

453 

583 

1000 

1186 

1336 

1387 

41 

8400 

 

 

QUESTION: 

The total number of legal cases and amount spent by the Police Federation of England and Wales by year since 2012 in defending officers facing charges for any of the 71 offences listed under the Sexual Offences Act 2003. As above, if the accusation is part of a wider array of accusations (i.e. misconduct and a criminal offence) please state that. 

RESPONSE: 

PFEW confirms that it does hold data in relation to this however does not record sexual offence charges under the 71 individual offences listed in the Sexual Offences Act 2003.  Please see below for the number of sexual offence charges by year.  As previously stated, costs and claims are not recorded in the manner suggested above.  

 

2012 

2013 

2014 

2015 

2016 

2017 

2018 

2019 

2020 

2021 

2022 

Total 

10 

31 

28 

44 

22 

24 

28 

11 

9 

13 

10 

230 

 

 

QUESTION: 

A list of the ten cases in 2022 that incurred the most financial cost for the Police Federation of England, what that amount was in each case and the nature of the accusations in question and police forces involved (with as much or as little detail as the federation believes would not break privacy rules). 

 

RESPONSE: 

PFEW confirms that it does hold this data however the 10 cases incurring the highest cost in 2022 are ongoing and therefore PFEW is applying exemption Regulation 12(5)(d): Confidentiality of Proceedings. 

  

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