Now you can request information from the Police Federation of England and Wales

The Police Federation of England and Wales is the latest body to be added to WhatDoTheyKnow.

Thanks to the Policing and Crime Act 2017, which came into force on January 31, the Federation is now subject to Freedom of Information. That means that if you make a request for information which they hold, under most circumstances they must provide it.

These new responsibilities were announced by Theresa May back in 2014 when she was Home Secretary:

I will bring forward proposals to make the Police Federation – that is, the national organisation and all the regional branches – subject to the Freedom of Information Act.

I know that some of you will find these changes unpalatable. In particular, I know that some of you will find the Freedom of Information Act an unwelcome intrusion. But the Police Federation is an organisation created by statute, it serves a public function and the Normington Review demonstrated very clearly that it is an organisation in need of greater transparency and accountability. So it is a change that I believe needs to be made.

Whether it was found unpalatable or not — it happened. Accordingly, that’s now reflected on WhatDoTheyKnow, so if you have a burning question for the Federation, now is the time to ask.


Image: CodyR (CC by/2.0)

2 Comments

  1. In fact the relevant section (section 50) of the Policing and Crime Act has not yet been brought into force, so the Police Federation is not yet covered by FOI. The Home Office has not announced when it will be brought into force, so it is unclear when this will happen.

    • Thanks for the clarification! I guess it will be interesting to see if they’d respond to any requests sent now, in that case, as a warm-up to their pending responsibilities…