Thank you for your request under the Environmental Information Regulations.
We can confirm that Essex County Fire & Rescue Service does hold the information you have requested.
Please see below the answer to your request.
Questions and final response:
Question 1 - I am writing to request an uptodate Fleetlist for Essex Fire and Rescue Service.
I am have been made aware that you procured some new appliances and would like to have a full allocation list of these. This must include the following information: Vehicle Registration, Make, Model, Builder, Type and Location.
It will not be accepted that Essex Fire and Rescue Service place the request as not in the public interest and refuse to pass this information due to National Security or following the CPNI guidance. These are public assets and Cambridgeshire must remember this.
It is also to be noted that the below which has come from the ICO to which the information is now allowed to be released. A recent Decision Notice on the ICO's web site related to the publishing of Vehicle Registration Marks (VRMs) in response to Freedom of Information requests and, in particular, the difference between vehicles registered to individuals and those registered to organisations. It also referenced vehicles registered to organisations but have subsequently been sold-on and may now be registered to individuals. ‘26. The Commissioner has previously considered the status of VRM’s under the DPA 1998 and decided that where the VRM belongs to a vehicle which is owned by a living individual the VRM itself will be personal data without associated information being disclosed with it. This is because information identifying the owner of the vehicle is obtainable simply from having access to the VRM." "27. However, the Commissioner notes that where the owner of a vehicle is a corporate body or an organisation rather than a living identifiable individual then VRM information cannot be personal data. Section 40(2) cannot therefore apply to this information." "29. Following on from this, a disclosure of any VRM data which refers to vehicles which have since been sold on to private individuals would also be a disclosure of personal data, relating to the new owner of the vehicle. A motivated individual with access to the VRM number of a vehicle would be able to take steps to identify the current owner of that vehicle."
We attach our current fleet list as requested.
Further to the list, we have 3 Heavy Rescue pumps that are awaiting entry to service and 12 x Type B appliances that are on order from the manufacturer.
The details for these vehicles are not currently available, perhaps a new information request in Spring 2024 may result in this information being available at that time.
Further to the list, I must advise you that we have redacted the vehicles registrations for the cars that are leased under our Officer Car Lease Scheme, the leaseholders of these vehicles are individual officers/members of staff, therefore the Registrations for these vehicles is personal data and should not be published.
We apply EIR Regulation 12(3) & Regulation 13: EIR Regulation 12(3) & Regulation 13 - Personal data of third parties is exempt if disclosure would breach the principles of the Data Protection Act 1998.
We believe that providing you with the information would breach the following Data Protection principles: Data shall be fairly and lawfully processed. Data shall be processed for limited purposes.
We are applying this exception because. a) we do not have the consent of the person who is the subject of the information to disclose it to you, b) disclosure does not meet any of the schedule 2 conditions that would make it “necessary”, and c) disclosure of the information to you would not be connected to the purpose for which we have collected and are holding the information.
We further believe that the release of the requested information would cause unwarranted interference to the rights and freedoms and legitimate interests of the data subject(s). Such a disclosure would in our view constitute a breach of Article 8 in the Human Rights Act (the right to privacy and family life).
In such circumstances this is an absolute exception. In accordance with the Regulations, this letter acts as a refusal notice.
We hope this information is useful to you.
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Incident and other data is published on our transparency site. Incident Data (essexfire.gov.uk) .
Please note that the response and data released to you as part of this request will be published on our website http://transparency.essex-fire.gov.uk/.
All requests will be anonymised and no personal information including contact details will be disclosed as part of this process.
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Thank you for your interest in Essex County Fire and Rescue Service, we hope this satisfies your request.
If you are dissatisfied with the handling of your request, you have the right to apply for an internal review. Internal review requests should be submitted within two months of the date of your original email and should be sent to informationgovernance@essex-fire.gov.uk or sent to our postal address: Internal Review, System & Data Information Governance Team, Kelvedon Park, Rivenhall, Witham, Essex CM8 3HB.
Please ensure you quote the above reference number in all future communications.