Response

Having considered your request, we can inform you that we are unable to provide you with the information you have requested, as it would prove too costly to do so within the context of the fee regulations.

The current cost threshold is £600 and we estimate that it would cost in excess of this amount to process your request. Therefore, this represents a refusal notice in terms of Section 12 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 – Excessive Cost of Compliance.

To explain, the Authority was established in April 2013 and holding the Chief Constable to account for the policing of Scotland is one of our core functions. We have interpreted your request for communications to include correspondence, emails, minutes and briefings. The Authority’s communications are not classified in a manner which would enable information for such a wide ranging request, over a 10 year timeframe, to be identified. For example, this would mean individual review of every piece of correspondence and email between the Authority and Chief Constable held at the time of your request.

The Authority has assessed that the £600 cost limit within the Act equates to 40 hours of work and so your request would exceed the cost threshold.

To assist, we would point you to our website. The business of the Authority and its committees are conducted in public and can be watched, live or recorded, on our Livestream channel. Agendas and papers for public sessions are published in advance - SPA Meetings.

You may be interested in viewing the recordings and papers for meetings of the Authority, at which the Chief Constable reports on information relating to the police service, policing and the state of crime. Also of interest may be the Policing Performance Committee, the purpose of which is to provide oversight and scrutiny of continuous improvement in policing.

You may wish to consider making a request in regard to a specific policing issue, during a particular timeframe, which may bring your request under the cost threshold.