Received: 15 February 2024

REQUEST: 

A long running Employment Tribunal has recently finished in Manchester: 

Peter Jackson v Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police. 

1) How much has this cost in legal fees supporting Mr Jackson? 

2) Has this cost been borne by the Greater Manchester Police Federation, the Police Federation of England and Wales or by the insurers of either Federation? 

Responded: 14 March 2024

RESPONSE: 

The requested information relates to the legal costs associated with an identifiable individual’s legal claim in the Employment Tribunal: that is, whether or not legal costs have been incurred in supporting the individual’s claim, and if so, who has borne these costs.  The Police Federation of England and Wales (PFEW) considers that the requested data constitutes personal data in accordance with Article 4(1) of the UK General data Protection regulation (“UK GDPR”) which states “personal data means any information relating to an identifiable natural person”. 

The PFEW does not consider it has any legitimate interest in providing personal data responsive to the request.  Furthermore, the PFEW considers that the need to protect the interests/fundamental rights and freedoms of the individual militates in favour of not disclosing the personal data requested.  As such, the PFEW considers that there is no lawful basis for it to process the relevant personal data by providing it in response to this request and to do so would contravene Article 5(1)(a) of the UK GDPR, namely the principle that personal data “shall be processed lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner in relation to the data subject”. 

Accordingly, the PFEW relies on the exemption set out in section 40(3A)(a) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (“FOIA”) which provides that information which constitutes personal data is exempt information if disclosure of the information to a member of the public otherwise than under FOIA would contravene any of the data protection principles.