Could I please request the following information under the Freedom of Information Act:
For the reporting year 2023-24 (i.e. as per your council’s Section 42 Enquiry data returns to NHS England),
1. Of the 1,260 records of concluded Section 42 Safeguarding Enquiries, in how many did the person (or one of the people) who was the alleged source of the risk have Lasting Power of Attorney over the adult who was at risk?
2. Of the 815 records of concluded Section 42 Safeguarding Enquiries where the adult at risk lacked mental capacity, in how many did the person (or one of the people) who was the alleged source of the risk have Lasting Power of Attorney over the adult who was at risk?
Identifying whether the person alleged to have caused harm held LPA would require manually reviewing each of the 2,075 individual safeguarding records. This level of detail is not captured in a way that allows for automated reporting. To illustrate the scale of the task: if reviewing 200 safeguarding records takes approximately 20 minutes each, then reviewing all 2,075 would require around 41,500 minutes or 691 hours of staff time.
This therefore exceeds the appropriate time limit of 18 hours and the information is exempted from disclosure pursuant to section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. We are, unfortunately, unable to assist further in relation to your request.