1. Please tell me the number of police officers and PCSOs currently on gardening leave or suspended from their job over criminal or misconduct allegations - while still being paid.

2. Please also tell me the number of police officers and PCSOs who have been on gardening leave/ suspended over criminal or misconduct allegations - while still being paid, since 2008.

3. For both of the above questions, please include the following information about each officer/PCSO:
a) Their rank
b) The nature of each of their crime/suspected crime (e.g. drink driving, sexual assault, drug possession etc)
c) How long have/ had each of these staff been suspended for and when is their gardening leave is expected to end/ended? Please include whether they are awaiting court cases or investigation.
d) How much are each these officers earning whilst on leave?
Included in this please tell me if the officers/staff were suspended on full pay, half pay or another amount and specify the exact amount. Please also tell me whether this included bonuses, and if so how much the bonuses were worth.

4. And what has been the total cost to the Force of Officers and PCSO’s on gardening leave to date since 2008?

1. One Officer suspended.

2. A total of fourteen police officers have been suspended since 01.01.2008.
A total of four PCSO’s have been suspended since 01.01.2008.

3. Please see the attached table. The officer currently suspended is not included. All officers and PCSO’s are suspended on full pay.

The combination of the information which has been provided above, allows individuals to be identified. The Act prescribes that information that is personal is exempt from disclosure and in this case disclosing the amount paid to identifiable individuals would breach their rights under the data protection act, as would the number of days suspended and allegation category of the individuals currently suspended. The Section applicable is section 40 (2), third party personal information, this is an Absolute exemption. Any information to which a request relates is exempt if it constitutes personal data of which the applicant is not the data subject and if disclosure of that information to a member of the public would contravene any of the principles of the 1998 Data Protection Act. In this particular case, disclosure of the information would contravene Principles 1 and 2 of the Act, whereby personal data shall be processed fairly and lawfully and only obtained for one or more specified purpose or purposes. In addition the information sought in the latter part of question 3 relating to whether individuals were awaiting court cases or investigation this information would constitute sensitive personal data” any proceedings of any offence committed or alleged to have been committed by the data subject” therefore is also exempt from disclosure.

4. £248,312.69 (as of 30th July 2012) is the cost of Officers suspended, gardening leave is not a term recognised by the Constabulary.