Correspondence between Zoe Metcalfe and North Yorkshire Mayoral candidates

Information disclosed

Our Ref: Our Ref: NY8821 - Date: 26 October 2023

Our Ref: NY8821

Date: 26 October 2023

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: NY8821

I write in connection with your request for information that was received by the Office of the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner for North Yorkshire (OPFCC) on 12 October 2023.

I note you seek access to the following information:

Please will you forward any correspondence, including draft correspondence, between Zoe Metcalfe, PFCC, and any North Yorkshire Mayoral candidates in the last 3 months.

Extent and Result of Searches to Locate Information

To locate the information relevant to your request searches were conducted within the OPFCC.

I can confirm that the information you have requested is held by the OPFCC.

Decision

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

In the last 3 months there have been 5 items of correspondence (4 draft and 1 final). Please see attached:

Draft Letter Number One 22.09.2023 – draft response to any approaches by any stakeholder, including prospective mayoral candidates, about the announcement made in respect of Chief Constable Winward’s forthcoming retirement

Draft Letter Number Two Keane Duncan 27.09.2023 – draft response to proposed mayoral candidate Keane Duncan following telephone call on 24 September 2023
Draft Letter Number Three Keane Duncan 28.09.2023 – 2^nd draft response to proposed mayoral candidate Keane Duncan following telephone call on 24 September 2023
Draft Letter Number Four Keane Duncan 29.09.2023 – 3^rd draft response to proposed mayoral candidate Keane Duncan following telephone call on 24 September 2023
09.23 Letter to KD ZM – final letter sent to proposed mayoral candidate Keane Duncan

Please note that systems used for recording information are not generic, nor are the procedures used locally in capturing the data. It should be noted therefore that the OPFCC’s response to your questions should not be used for comparison purposes with any other responses you may receive.

Complaint Rights

Your attention is drawn to the attached sheet which details your right of complaint.

If you have any queries concerning this request, please contact me quoting the reference number above.

Yours sincerely,

Becky Cannon

Office of the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner for North Yorkshire

Attachments

Update 08/11/2023

Our Ref: NY8821 Date: 8 November 2023

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: NY8821 – ADDENDUM

Further to our previous correspondence (dated 26 October 2023) regarding your request for information, following further searches and consideration of relevant practitioner guidance, we are now in a position to provide some further information under cover of this addendum.

In your original request (dated 12 October 2023), we noted you sought access to the following information:

Please will you forward any correspondence, including draft correspondence, between Zoe Metcalfe, PFCC, and any North Yorkshire Mayoral candidates in the last 3 months.

Extent and Result of Searches to Locate Information

To locate the information relevant to your request, following the preparation and early submission of the response dated 26 October 2023, further identification of potential information amounting to “correspondence” was conducted within the Office of the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner (OPFCC). To determine whether the material is recorded information ‘held’ by the OPFCC we considered the law and the guidance issued by the Information Commissioner about how the law should be interpreted.

I can confirm that after completion of that process, we have concluded on balance that further information you have requested is held by the OPFCC.

We have made every effort to complete this process before the expiry of the statutory period for responding to your original request (9 November 2023) which we hope you will find appropriate. Nonetheless, please accept our apology for it being necessary to issue a response and an addendum, rather than a single response.

Decision

After careful deliberation of your request and consideration of the law and the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) guidance, I have today decided to disclose the additional recorded information to you:

Twelve text messages between a mobile phone handset belonging to Zoe Metcalfe and proposed mayoral candidate Keane Duncan

Two ‘WhatsApp’ messages sent by proposed mayoral candidate Keane Duncan to a handset belonging to Zoe Metcalfe.

Please see attached the detail of the messages.

To assist you to understand the context relating to this further material, the following discretionary additional information is offered

I wish to clarify that Zoe Metcalfe (in her position as office holder) and OPFCC staff, as a matter of policy and practice, do not use WhatsApp or any other private communications channels for official matters.

As with any serving Commissioner, Zoe Metcalfe also has a role in a personal/political/party capacity and any information (including correspondence) relating to those aspects of her personal or professional life would not ordinarily be judged as recorded information held by the OPFCC, in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

However, given the importance of the subject matter and the fact that the information cannot definitively be categorised as held by Zoe Metcalfe in her personal/political/party capacity rather than by the PFCC as office holder, I have exercised my discretion as FOI Decision Maker to treat the messages as recorded information held by the OPFCC, on this specific occasion.

You will note that Simon Dennis (OPFCC Chief Executive & Monitoring Officer) is mentioned by Commissioner Zoe in the message dated 30 August 2023 at 1024. It will perhaps assist you to better understand this reference if we make clear that in his role as CE&MO, Mr Dennis had already sent a courtesy note of introduction to known candidates during August 2023, offering introductory meetings to cover policing fire and crime matters and the role of Commissioner, in line with normal conventions and Association of Police and Crime Commissioners (APCC) and Association of Police and Crime Chief Executives (APACE) guidance on the executive role of the OPFCC and its Chief Executive during election periods. This was a course of action required to be taken by Mr Dennis in his distinct statutory role of Chief Executive & Monitoring Officer but was undertaken with Commissioner Zoe’s knowledge and acquiescence in her role as the serving office holder.