NFRS 2022 104 - Fire Authorities budget

You asked for:

Please could I request the following information Under the Freedom of Information Act:

1. Your fire and rescue authorities’ total budget for each year since 2015.

Please could you provide this information by email, preferably in a spreadsheet.

If it is not possible to provide the information requested due to the information exceeding the cost of compliance limits identified in Section 12, please provide advice and assistance, under the Section 16 obligations of the Act, as to how I can refine my request.

Our Response:

1. Your fire and rescue authorities’ total budget for each year since 2015.

   Answer: - The information requested has been deemed exempt by virtue of section 21(1) Information reasonably accessible by other means and section 22(1) Information Intended for Future Publication under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

   Section 21 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 is categorised as an Absolute and Class Based type exemption and therefore does not require a public interest test to be carried nor must Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service articulate the harm in disclosure.

   Section 22 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 is categorised as a Qualified and Class Based type exemption and therefore requires a public interest test to be carried but does not require that Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service articulate the harm in disclosure.

21. Information accessible to applicant by other means.

1. Information which is reasonably accessible to the applicant otherwise than under section 1 is exempt information.
2. For the purposes of subsection (1)—
   1. Information may be reasonably accessible to the applicant even though it is accessible only to payment, and
   2. Information is to be taken to be reasonably accessible to the applicant if it is information which the public authority or any other person is obliged by or under any enactment to communicate (otherwise than by making the information available for inspection) to members of the public on request, whether free of charge or on payment.
3. For the purposes of subsection (1), information which is held by a public authority and does notfall within subsection (2)(b) is not to be regarded as reasonably accessible to the applicant merelybecause the information is available from the public authority itself on request, unless the informationis made available in accordance with the authority’s publication scheme and any payment requiredis specified in, or determined in accordance with, the scheme.

Section 21 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 is categorised as an Absolute and Class Based type exemption and therefore does not require a public interest test to be carried nor must Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service articulate the harm in disclosure.

The information requested can be accessed at the following location:

• Income and expenditure
• Final accounts 2015/16 (.pdf)
• Final accounts 2014/15 (.pdf)

22. Information intended for future publication.

1. Information is exempt information if —
   1. the information is held by the public authority with a view to its publication, by the authority or any other person, at some future date (whether determined or not),
   2. the information was already held with a view to such publication at the time when the request for information was made, and
   3. it is reasonable in all the circumstances that the information should be withheld from disclosure until the date referred to in paragraph (a).
2. The duty to confirm or deny does not arise if, or to the extent that, compliance with section 1(1)(a) would involve the disclosure of any information (whether or not already recorded) which falls within subsection (1).

Public Interest Test

S22.Considerations favouring Disclosure.

Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service recognise there is a strong public interest to demonstrate openness, transparency and accountability with regards to its finances. We recognise that disclosure would provide reassurance that the Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service is adequately funded and using public money wisely.

S21.Considerations favouring Non-Disclosure.

Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service is committed to publishing information and we routinely do so via Income and expenditure. However, we do not consider that it is in the public interest to place information into the public domain, prematurely, before pre-publication procedures have taken place. It would require allocating additional resources and time to produce the necessary information as it is not yet collated. Additionally, this has been exacerbated by ongoing public sector audit delays.

Balance Test

After balancing each of considerations Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service has reached the view that, on balance, the public interest is better served by withholding this information under Section 22 of the Act at this time, however this data will be available publicly in line with Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service’s publication scheme. Such publications will be made available via Income and expenditure.

This Letter constitutes a refusal notice under Section 17(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.