Anti racism training, guidance, reports and other documents
Date of request: 2 June 2026
Reference: 16378513
Request
Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 I request the following information:
- All training materials, slide decks, participant workbooks, facilitator guides, e-learning modules, or other educational content used by your force that form part of the College of Policing Anti-Racism Training Package for officers and staff (published March 2026) or any predecessor/successor anti-racism / race-equity training delivered within your force.
- All internal guidance, memos, briefing papers, emails, or implementation documents (2022-2026) held by your force relating to the Police Race Action Plan and the Anti-Racism Commitment (March 2025), specifically any content that discusses:
* differential treatment of individuals or communities based on ethnicity/race to achieve ‘equality of outcomes’,
* ‘disproportionality’,
* ‘institutional racism’,
* ‘two-tier policing’ (or equivalent phrasing),
* or prioritising response / resource allocation according to the racialised needs/experiences of different ethnic groups.
- Any equality impact assessments, evaluation reports, or monitoring data produced by your force on the above training or guidance.
Scope clarification (to assist efficient handling and avoid s.12 cost refusal):
I am requesting only aggregate training/guidance materials and policy documents held by your force. No personal data of individual officers or trainees is required. I am happy to receive the information in electronic format (PDF/Word/PowerPoint) and will accept redacted versions where exemptions apply, provided a detailed explanation and public-interest test is supplied.
Response
Avon and Somerset Police holds information relevant to your request. However, we are unable to provide a response without exceeding the cost limit set out under Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. This is because the requested information is not recorded in a way that allows for automated retrieval, and would require extensive manual review.
The scope of your request – covering all training materials relating to any anti racism training delivered within Avon and Somerset Police, and all emails, memos and briefing papers relating to the Police Race Action Plan and the Anti-Racism Commitment – is such that we estimate identifying and retrieving all relevant information would take far more than 18 hours to complete.
Section 12 of the Act allows public authorities to refuse requests where the cost of compliance would exceed the appropriate limit. For police authorities, this limit is £450 or 18 staff hours. This represents the estimated cost of one person spending 2.5 working days determining whether the department holds the information and locating, retrieving, and extracting it.
Where Section 12 is engaged, it applies to the request as a whole, even where only part of the request would exceed the appropriate limit. In accordance with ICO guidance, public authorities are not required to provide information up to the limit and may refuse the entire request where the cost threshold is met. However, under our duty to provide advice and assistance (Section 16 of the Act), you may wish to submit a refined request. By narrowing the scope of your request, it may be possible to bring it within the appropriate cost limit and enable disclosure of information most relevant to your interests.
To assist further, I can advise that we have previously responded to requests specifically relating to Race Matters training, which may be of use. Our response has been published and is available via the link below:
Race Matters Training | Avon and Somerset Police
Additionally, while a full response to your request would take over 18 hours, we have published extensive information relating to Race Maters on our website, including information covering training (question 1) and some of the terms listed in question 2. The published information is available via the following links:
Race Matters | Avon and Somerset Police
Equality and diversity publications | Avon and Somerset Police
These include further links to our Anti-racism strategy 2024-27 as well as progress updates from the following dates:
If you would like to submit a refined request for further information or documents referred to in the above links, or for any equality impact assessments, evaluation reports, or monitoring data as requested in question 3, please let us know.