Ground-mounted solar installations 1138/2023
FOI Reference: 1138/2023
Request:
Please provide the following information for each of the last three calendar years (2023, 2022, 2021):
- The total number of recorded incidents involving ground-mounted solar installations. This includes but is not limited to theft, vandalism, and disturbances directly related to these installations.
- The total number of prosecutions resulting from these incidents involving ground-mounted solar installations.
If your data recording systems do not specifically categorise incidents as 'ground-mounted solar installation' related, please provide the best approximation based on available categories and include a brief explanation of how these categories are determined.
Clarification:
Are you referring to incidents or crimes? Please note an incident is different from a crime. An incident is a record of contact made to a police force by an individual/member of public (usually via a 999 or 101 call) and a crime is where the threshold has been met for the police force to deem that a criminal offence has occurred as defined by law.
Reply: If your Force records the distinction between an incident and a crime then please provide statistics for both.
Response:
Section 1 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 places two duties on public authorities. Unless exemptions apply, the first duty at Section 1(1) (a) is to confirm or deny whether the information specified in a request is held. The second duty at Section 1(1) (b) is to disclose information that has been confirmed as being held.
Where exemptions are relied upon Section 17 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 requires Dyfed-Powys Police, when refusing to provide such information (because the information is exempt) to provide you the applicant with a notice which:
(a) states that fact,
(b) specifies the exemption in question and
(c) states (if that would not otherwise be apparent) why the exemption applies.
I can confirm that Dyfed-Powys Police does hold the information you have requested. However, we are withholding the whole of the requested information since we consider that the Section 12(1) exemption the Cost of Compliance exceeds the Appropriate Limit applies to it.
Section 12 (1) – The cost of compliance exceeds the Appropriate Limit
Section 12(1) states: “…Section 1 (1) does not oblige a public authority to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying with the request would exceed the appropriate limit.”
The cost of providing you with the information requested in respect of your request is above the amount to which we are legally required to respond i.e. the cost of locating and retrieving the information exceeds the “appropriate level” as stated in the Freedom of Information (Fees and Appropriate Limit) Regulations 2004. It is estimated that it would exceed 18 hours (i.e. minimum 16,331 hours) to comply with this part of your request. The regulations can be located @ https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2004/3244
The Freedom of Information Department has been advised that the information in relation to the whole of your request is not held in an easily retrievable format. This is due to the fact that system is not keyword searchable and solar installation is not a searchable category, so every potentially relevant crime or incident record ( e.g Criminal Damage, Theft, Other
Suspicious, ASB (environmental, nuisance, personal) ) would need to be manually checked.
It has been established that there are a total of 97,992 records that would require individual interrogation and it has been estimated that it would take a minimum of 10 minutes to research each individual record. The relevant time estimate is detailed below:
2021: 27,900 records x 10 minutes per record = 4,651 hours
(1260 hrs for crimes and 3391 hrs for incidents)
2022: 24182 records x 10 minutes per record = 4,030.3 hours
(1525 hrs for crimes and 2507 hrs for incidents)
2023 (up to 12/12): 45,909 records x 10 minutes per record = 7651.5 hours
(2965 hrs for crimes and 4687 hrs for incidents)
Total time estimate to complete whole request = 16,331.8 hours
In accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000, this letter acts as a Refusal Notice for the WHOLE of this request under Section 17(5) A public authority which, in relation to any request for information, is relying on a claim that section 12 or section 14 applies must, within the time for complying with section 1(1), give the applicant a notice stating that fact.
You may wish to refine and resubmit your request so that it reduces the time shown above to fall within the 18 hours.
Should you require any further advice in relation to this matter please don’t hesitate to contact me.
Please also be advised that should the request be refined, it does not remove the Force’s right to cite exemptions if relevant.
It should be noted that as a result of the systems adopted by Dyfed-Powys Police in relation to the recording of such information that the information released may or may not be accurate.
Furthermore, it should also be noted that Police forces in the United Kingdom are routinely required to provide crime statistics to government bodies and the recording criteria is set nationally. However, the systems used for recording these figures are not generic, nor are the procedures used locally in capturing the crime data. It should be noted that for these reasons this force's response to your questions should not be used for comparison purposes with any other response you may receive.
(This is a response under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and disclosed on 24/01/2024)