Bills Of Exchange Act 1882 - Camera Processing Services

Freedom of information request reference no: 01.FOI.22.023899

I note you seek access to the following information:

1. Does the Metropolitan Police adhere to their legal obligations in regard to the Bills of Exchange Act 1882? If not, please say why it is exempt from it.

THE BILLS OF EXCHANGE ACT 1882
"A bill of exchange is an unconditional order in writing, addressed by one person to another, signed by the person giving it, requiring the person to whom it is addressed to pay on demand or at a fixed or determinable future time a sum certain in money to or to the order of a specified person, or to bearer.

All exchanges of monies are subject to the bills of exchange act. Providing a 'true bill' is not compulsory, but if someone who is being charged has requested one, it is fraud to keep requesting the funds without complying with their request.

Given the above:

2. If any individual in the Met Police (the CLAIMANT), or any subdivision of it, is requesting payment from someone, and that someone requests a formal invoice that contains the name, role and wet ink signature of the CLAIMANT (amongst other details – see will they be given such an invoice with that information on it?

If not, please explain why the Met Police is legally exempt from this requirement?
[Note that if it is a department , rather than individual requesting payment, then as described in the definition of a Bill of Exchange above, a specific individual needs to take responsibility for serving the claim].

3. Just to confirm, does this apply also to the Camera Processing Services Met Prosecutions subdivision and all other subdivision issuing penalty charge notices or fixed penalty notices?
Also please give me the following information:

4. On a Notice of Intended Prosecution from the Camera Processing Services Met Prosecutions unit”, at the end, is the name “J Snell, On behalf of the Commissioner for the Metropolitan Police”. Who is J Snell? What is their title and role within the MET? What is their email address?

5. What is the name, title and roll of the head of the “Camera Processing Services Met Prosecutions unit”?

Decision

I have today decided to disclose some of the requested information. Some data has been withheld as it is exempt from disclosure and therefore this response serves as a Refusal Notice under Section 17 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the Act) by virtue of the following exemptions:

Section 8 – Recorded information not having to create new information or giving an opinion or judgment that is not already recorded.
Section 40(2)(3)&(40 – Personal Information
Section 84 - Information recorded in any form

Reason for decision

In response to question 1, 2 and 3 of your request above.

This type of question falls outside of the remit of the Act.

Section 8 - ICO guidance for making FOIA requests, advises the public that a FOIA request can be in the form of a question rather than a request for specific documents, however a public authority does not have to answer your question if this would mean creating new information or giving an opinion or judgment that is not already recorded.

Section 84 - Information is defined in section 84 of the Act as 'information recorded in any form'. The Act therefore only extends to requests for recorded information. It does not require public authorities to answer questions generally; only if they already hold the answers in recorded form. The Act does not extend to requests for information or advice about legislation, policies or their implementation, or the merits or demerits of any proposal or action - unless, of course, the answer to any such request is already held in recorded form.

Before I explain reasons for the decisions that I have made in relation to your request, I thought that it would be helpful to outline the parameters set out by the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the Act), within which a request for information can be answered. The Act creates a statutory right of access to information held by public authorities. A public authority in respect of a request must, if permitted, state under Section 1(a) of the Act, whether it holds the requested information and, if held, then communicate that information to the applicant under Section 1(b) of the Act.

The right of access to information is not without exception and is subject to a number of exemptions which are designed to enable public authorities to withhold information that is unsuitable for release. Importantly, the Act is designed to place information into the public domain, that is, once access to information is granted to one person under the Act, it is then considered public information and must be communicated to any individual should a request be received.

I have considered the following information you have requested:

• The full name of J Snell and their email address.

Within the provisions of the FOIA and found that I am not permitted under the FOIA to disclose the following information:

The above requests for information is exempt under Section 40(2)(3)&(4) - Personal information of the FOIA.

Section 40(2)(3)&(4) – Personal Information - The Freedom of Information Act provides an exemption for Personal Data and this is known as the section 40 exemption.

The information sought under your Freedom of Information request includes the following which we consider to be Personal Data:

• The full name of J Snell and their email address
Where the request is seeking access to third party personal data the section 40(2) exemption may be engaged.

In order to apply the Section 40(2) exemption, the disclosure of the requested information must satisfy either the first, second or third conditions as defined by subsections 3A, 3B and 4A of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (as amended by Section 58 of the Data Protection Act 2018).

The first condition ensures that the exemption would apply in circumstances where the disclosure of the information would breach any of the Data Protection Act 2018 principles.

There are six Data Protection principles set out in the 2018 Act and these can be found at section 34.

In this instance I have decided that the disclosure of the Personal Data would be incompatible with the first Data Protection principle which states that the processing (in this case the disclosure) of the data must be both lawful and fair.

Disclosure

DUTY TO ADVISE AND ASSIST

Under Section 16 of the Act, there is a duty to advise and assist those making requests for information. In accordance with this duty.

Please submit your request for information relating to question 1, 2 and 3 to the MPS via the link provided below.

MPS Contact Us

Who is J Snell? What is their title and role within the MET? And the roll of the head of the “Camera Processing Services Met Prosecutions unit”?

J Snell is the Senior Camera Processing Manager and the Head of the “Camera Processing Services Met Prosecutions unit”.

What is the name of the head of the “Camera Processing Services Met Prosecutions unit” and What is their email address?

Exempt under Section 40 – Personal Information