Cost to date of responding to Just Stop Oil protests

Freedom of information request reference no: 01.FOI.23.033850

I note you seek access to the following information:

Please provide a full breakdown of how much responding to ‘Just Stop Oil’ protests has cost you to date.

Decision

I have today decided to disclose the located information to you in full.

Please find below information pursuant to your request above.

The MPS does not hold the precise cost of policing the ‘Just Stop Oil’ protests. The cost of policing an event is largely comprised of:

1. Police officer and police staff time spent planning the operation.
2. Police officer and police staff time deployed during the course of an operation.
3. Police officer and police staff time dealing with arrests and/or processing detainees.
4. Police officer and police staff time deployed after an operation debriefing or preparing applicable documentation (i.e. witness statements).
5. Police officer and police staff overtime payments.
6. Operational feeding.
7. Vehicles and fuel.
8. Equipment.
9. Miscellaneous expenses (i.e. building costs).

When considering whether the MPS holds the information that would enable your request to be answered, I have given regard to the following:

a. Police officers record their daily duties on the Computer Aided Resource Management System (CARMS), but generally do not record their duties in sufficient detail to enable the precise time spent on a particular operation to be established.

b. Police employees and in particular, senior police officers, are involved in a number of different operations, investigations and activities at any given time. In many cases, an employee’s duties for a particular day are not dedicated to a single operation, investigation or activity.

c. Members of police staff are generally not required to record their daily duties on any system. There is therefore often no record of staff time spent on a particular operation.

d. Each member of staff receives a unique salary based on their individual rate of pay as they progress through the pay spine of their respective grade. Rates of pay also differ based on any applicable allowances and the pension scheme to which each member of staff is aligned. The MPS also makes individual national insurance contributions and pension contributions for each employee. Accurate employee costs per operation can therefore only be calculated based on individual rates of pay/costs and the time they have spent performing duties in connection with that operation. This cannot accurately be calculated owing to the absence of reliable data as set out at points a-c above.

e. Vehicles, fuel, equipment and other miscellaneous costs cannot accurately be reported by the MPS.

f. The cost of operations published by MO6 are typically estimated.

The information requested cannot accordingly be provided for the reasons set out at points a-f above.

The MPS has published the estimated costs of a number of events, including the Just Stop Oil protests, on its website. I have provided a number of links to relevant information below.

Home Office Website - Public Order Bill: Factsheet (see section titled ‘Key Facts’)

MPS Publication Scheme - Just Stop Oil Costs, Resourcing and Arrest Data - October - December 2022

MPS FOIA Notice - Cost Incurred of the Just Stop Oil/ Extinction Rebellion Protests

MPS FOIA Notice - Cost of policing the Just Stop Oil protests from January to April 2022

MPS FOIA Notice - Total cost and locations of Just Stop Oil protests from September to November

MPS FOIA Notice - Policing the Just Stop Oil protest in London on 31 October 2022

It may assist you to note that the MPS is due to publish the estimated costs, resourcing and arrest data for the most recent Just Stop Oil protests, 12 weeks after their conclusion. It may also assist you to note that the MPS proactively publishes information about different events, operations and investigations on its website, as well as all disclosures made in response to requests made under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. I have provided a link to this section of the MPS website below.

MPS Publication Scheme

The MPS Publication Scheme can be searched using keywords and may accordingly hold other information that is of interest to you.