Domestic abuse training 248/2025
FOI Reference: 248/25
Request 1 - 9:
- How many police officers are employed in the force at this time? Please can this be separated by gender?
- Of those police officers, how many have undertaken training in spotting signs of domestic abuse?
- When called out to an unexplained death/suspected suicide, how many times have the attending officers been those trained in spotting domestic abuse?
- How many times have domestic abuse specialists been called on to give officers advice regarding suspected suicides in the last 10 years? Please can this be separated by years?
- When attending a suspected suicide what are the factors considered before suicide is confirmed?
- How do officers determine if domestic violence was involved?
- If the partner says there were mental health problems, are any other family members or friends spoken to confirm there was no abuse?
- How many suicides have there been, separated by year, gender and the evidence used to determine suicide?
- How many suicides influenced by domestic violence have there been, separated by year, gender and the evidence to determine this?
Clarification: Please could I have the information for Q3 and 8 for the past five years.
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 20,461 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 question 4 of your request is not held in an easily retrievable format. This is due to the fact that we cannot keyword search on STORM (Police computer system that records incidents) for the information requested to narrow down the search for the information requested to see how many times domestic abuse specialists were called on.
All police officers can call on the assistance of Domestic Abuse Officers-the specialists. It is for them to decide while dealing with an incident, whether they require more specialist knowledge to deal with an incident and is not something that is decided from an FCC (Force Communications Centre) perspective.
It has been established that there are a total of 122,763 incidents recorded on STORM via the FCC 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:
In 2014 there were 4,753 domestic incidents recorded on STORM. This would take 792 hours to research the logs for the information requested for domestic abuse specialists’ assistance.
In 2015 there were 7,067 domestic incidents recorded on STORM. This would take 1178 hours to research the logs for the information requested for domestic abuse specialists’ assistance.
In 2016 there were 8,319 domestic incidents recorded on STORM. This would take 1387 hours to research the logs for the information requested for domestic abuse specialists’ assistance.
In 2017 there were 8,983 domestic incidents recorded on STORM. This would take 1497 hours to research the logs for the information requested for domestic abuse specialists’ assistance.
In 2018 there were 9,329 domestic incidents recorded on STORM. This would take 1555 hours to research the logs for the information requested for domestic abuse specialists’ assistance.
In 2019 there were 11,765 domestic incidents recorded on STORM. This would take 1961 hours to research the logs for the information requested for domestic abuse specialists’ assistance.
In 2020 there were 13,043 domestic incidents recorded on STORM. This would take 2174 hours to research the logs for the information requested for domestic abuse specialists’ assistance.
In 2021 there were 13,801 domestic incidents recorded on STORM. This would take 2300 hours to research the logs for the information requested for domestic abuse specialists’ assistance.
In 2022 there were 14,794 domestic incidents recorded on STORM. This would take 2466 hours to research the logs for the information requested for domestic abuse specialists’ assistance.
In 2023 there were 15,501 domestic incidents recorded on STORM. This would take 2584 hours to research the logs for the information requested for domestic abuse specialists’ assistance.
In 2024 there were 15,408 domestic incidents recorded on STORM. This would take 2568 hours to research the logs for the information requested for domestic abuse specialists’ assistance.
Total time estimate to complete whole request (122,763 domestic incidents x 10 minutes per record) = 20,461 hours
Please note: The Department responsible for providing the information have advised that, in response to questions 8 & 9, a response is partly possible. The only tricky part is the evidence to determine suicide. Dyfed-Powys Police can only report on suspected suicides, not confirmed suicides. Sometimes the evidence is obvious i.e. hanging, or there's a note etc, but other times a case may be reported as a suspected suicide but the coroner will return a different verdict following inquest.
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.
Although excess cost removed the force’s obligations under the Freedom of Information Act, as a gesture of goodwill, I have supplied information, relative to your request, retrieved or available before it was realised that the fees limit would be exceeded. I trust this is helpful, but it does not affect our legal right to rely on the fees regulations for the remainder of your request.
Goodwill Responses 1:
I can confirm that Dyfed-Powys Police does hold the information requested, as outlined below.
As at 31/01/2025 – 1296 officers employed.
By gender –
238 - man
157 - woman
2 - prefer to self-describe
899 - unknown/prefer not to say
Goodwill Responses 2:
I can confirm that Dyfed-Powys Police does hold the information requested, as outlined below.
Total No of officers Domestic Abuse Matters trained: 786
Goodwill Responses 3:
I can confirm that Dyfed-Powys Police does hold the information requested, as outlined below.
All police officers have domestic abuse training both when they join the force and ongoing training-so all officers attending incidents will have this knowledge.
Goodwill Responses 5:
I can confirm that Dyfed-Powys Police does hold the information requested, as outlined below.
Dyfed-Powys Police practice reflects College of Policing guidance.
Goodwill Responses 6:
I can confirm that Dyfed-Powys Police does hold the information requested, as outlined below.
Each case would be different and officers would rely on their training to identify signs of domestic abuse. One line of enquiry is digital media and phones can and are often seized and examined.
Goodwill Responses 7:
I can confirm that Dyfed-Powys Police does hold the information requested, as outlined below.
Friends and family would be spoken to for each suicide to provide background information
(This is a response under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and disclosed on 26/03/2025)
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