Received: 12 September 2025

Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, please provide for the period 1 Jan 2010 – 31 Dec 2024: 

REQUEST 1: Whether legal assistance funding (C2/C4 or equivalent) was approved, refused, or withdrawn by PFEW in respect of the following officers, and the dates of any decisions: 

• GMP:  

PC Stuart Foy,  

PC Mark Colebrook,  

PC Simon Beech,  

PC David Meehan,  

Insp Darren McKie, and 

PC Mohammed Ali 

• West Yorkshire Police:  

Sgt Benjamin (Ben) Lister. 

• Thames Valley Police:  

PC Luke Christopher Horner. 

REQUEST 2: For each decision above: the stated reason(s) (e.g., merits, panel-firm requirement, eligibility, policy grounds). 

REQUEST 3: A copy of the applicable legal assistance policy (Fund Rules, criteria, panel/TOBA/SLA rules) in force at the time of each decision, and any documented exceptions/waivers. 

If necessary, please anonymise personal data beyond the officers’ names already in the public domain. If section 40 or 43 exemptions are engaged, please provide particularised reasons and disclose redacted records where possible. If scope is too broad, please advise under s.16 FOIA to refine. 

Responded: 29 October 2025

RESPONSES 1 & 2: We are unable to provide data relating to questions 1 and 2 of this request under section 40 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FoIA). Section 40 stipulates that data such as this would be classified as personal information. Personal data is defined in Article 4(1) of the UK GDPR as:

‘any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person (‘data subject’); an identifiable natural person is one who can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to an identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data, an online identifier or to one or more factors specific to the physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or social identity of that natural person’. 

We always endeavour to process data ‘lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner’. 

Even if we provided the information in an anonymised format as has been requested then there is a strong likelihood that the officers listed above would be identifiable from the data. As such we are unable to provide the data that you have requested as part of your Freedom of Information request. 

We have not provided your own personal information in relation to this request because this is information that has already been provided to you. 

RESPONSE 3: Please note that the legal funding criteria requested cannot be shared, as this information is considered confidential under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. Specifically, it falls under Section 41, Information provided in confidence, which is an absolute exemption. This means there is no obligation to disclose the information, nor is there a requirement to apply a public interest test. Disclosure would constitute a breach of confidence and could potentially prejudice the commercial interests or legal integrity of the parties involved. As such, we are unable to release this information in response to your request. Furthermore, this information additionally is not providable under Section 42 (1) of the aforementioned Act as it is covered under legal professional privilege. Finally to share would also breach Section 43 (2), commercial interests of the Police Federation of England and Wales, because information is exempt information if its disclosure under this Act would, or would be likely to, prejudice the commercial interests of any person (including the public authority holding it).