Hotel crimes 144/2025

FOI Reference: 144/2025

Request:

I am writing to request information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 regarding hotel crime. Specifically, I’d be grateful if you could provide the following:

1. The total count of theft, burglary, and robbery incidents, with a location code of ‘hotel’, ‘motel’ and ‘guest house’ in your police area between 2019 and 2024.
2. Where available, a breakdown of the types of theft, such as:

• • Theft from a person
  • Theft from hotel rooms
  • Burglary
  • Vehicle theft in hotel car parks

3. If recorded, data on the estimated value of stolen goods in these incidents.

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 of 3,021.42 hours) to comply with this part of your request. The regulations can be located at https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2004/3244

The Freedom of Information department has been advised that the information in respect of your request is not held in an easily retrievable format as there is no specific category to denote hotel’, ‘motel’ and/or ‘guest house’ . In light of this and in order to accurately obtain the information relative to your request for the time frame stipulated would involve Dyfed Powys Police accessing and reviewing all crime records relating to theft, burglary and robbery offences to identify firstly if the record relates to a hotel’, ‘motel’ and/or ‘guest house’ and then to identify the value of any stolen goods. It has been established that there are a total of 36,257 crime records that cover the period of your request.  It has also been established that it would take a minimum of 5 minutes to review and obtain the information for a single crime record in respect of your request (as outlined above).  The process outlined results in the below time estimate.

2019 – 6495 crime records at a minimum of 5 minutes per record = 541.25 hours

2020 – 5096 crime records at a minimum of 5 minutes per record = 424.67 hours

2021 – 5249 crime records at a minimum of 5 minutes per record = 437.42 hours

2022 – 6194 crime records at a minimum of 5 minutes per record = 516.17 hours

2023 – 6907 crime records at a minimum of 5 minutes per record = 575.58 hours

2024 – 6316 crime records at a minimum of 5 minutes per record = 526.33 hours

Time estimate to complete task and request = 3,021.42 hours

In accordance therefore 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 the Freedom of Information Unit.

Please note: Dyfed Powys Police could potentially complete a keyword search in the location field of the systems utilised within the 18 hours time limit. However, any data retrieved would likely be inaccurate and not a true reflection of the data requested as the organisation/company name is often utilised (i.e. Premier Inn, Travel Lodge etc) rather than hotel, motel or guest house.  Furthermore, we would still then need to review each crime record to identify the value of the stolen goods (if recorded) which, dependant on the number of crime records identified may exceed the 18 hour time limit. Please also be advised that should the request be refined, it does not remove the public authorities right to cite exemptions if relevant.

(This is a response under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and disclosed on 19/02/25)