Driving without due care and attention 359/2025

FOI Reference: 359/2025

Request:

Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, I would like to request the following information relating to the offence of driving without proper control of the vehicle (commonly associated with offence code CD10).

Please provide data for the last three calendar years: 2022, 2023 and 2024, with a monthly breakdown where possible.

Specifically, I would like to request the following:

Q1. The total number of cautions issued under the CD10 offence, broken down by month and year.

Q2. The total number of fixed penalties issued under the CD10 offence, broken down by month and year.

Q3. The total number of prosecutions initiated under the CD10 offence, broken down by month and year.

Q4. A full list or breakdown of all offences recorded under CD10 during this period.

Q5. Where available, any accompanying officer notes, incident descriptors, or free-text fields associated with CD10 offences.

Q6. If possible, please indicate whether any of the CD10 offences were related to driving with pets in the vehicle (e.g. where the presence or behaviour of a pet may have contributed to the lack of control). This could include any relevant details recorded in officer notes or free-text fields.

Q7. Please indicate the number of fines issued under the CD10 offence during each period and where held, the total revenue generated from these fines, broken down by each month of each calendar year.

Clarification:

To clarify, I am requesting data on code CD10 only, which refers to driving without due care and attention only. Apologies for the mix up where I also referenced "Driving without proper control of the vehicle offences" at the beginning of the request.

Also, to confirm question 2, I wish to know the number of individuals stopped by an officer and issued with a conditional offer, which consists of a fine and points on their licence.

I can also confirm with regards to Q3, I am referring to both individuals stopped by an officer and issued with a conditional offer or individuals stopped by an officer and convicted at court. If possible, could these be broken down in your response?

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 264.31 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 due to the introduction of new recording systems in May 2023 the information in respect of your request for questions 1, 2, 3, 5 and 6 for the time period covering 13/05/23 - 31/12/24 is not held in an easily retrievable format. 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 Traffic Offence Reports (TORs) to identify a response in respect of questions 1, 2, 3, 5 and 6. It has been established that there are a total of 4,472 TORs that cover the period of your request.  It has also been established that it would take a minimum of 3 minutes to review and obtain the information for a single TOR in respect of your request (as outlined above).  The process outlined results in the below time estimate.

13/05/23 - 31/12/24 = 4,472 TORs at a minimum of 3 mins per TOR = 223.60 hours

In addition to this, the Freedom of Information Unit have also been advised that to answer question 3 of your request for the time period covering 01/01/2022 – 12/05/23 would exceed the 18 hour time limit equating to 20.16 hours as all 302 case files would need to be reviewed to identify if the file was processed to court and then to ascertain if the person was convicted.

Furthermore, the Freedom of Information Unit have also been advised that to answer questions 5&6 of your request for the time period covering 01/01/2022 – 12/05/23 would exceed the 18 hour time limit equating to 20.55 hours as all 411 cautions issued for driving without due care and attention files would need to be reviewed to identify a response in respect of questions 5&6 of your request.

Time estimate to complete request = 264.31 hours (223.60 + 20.16 + 20.55)

Please note: In respect of question 7 we are unable to confirm if a response can be provided within the 18 hours as further clarification is needed as to the specific type of fines that are being sought. As the file is already over the 18 hours so this clarification has not been obtained.

Please also note: A response to questions 1, 2 and  4 for the period covering 01/01/22 – 12/05/23 will be provided  at the end of the document and as gesture of goodwill outside of the FOI Act as this information has been easily retrievable.

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 also be advised that should the request be refined, it does not remove the public authorities right to cite exemptions if relevant.

Although excess cost removes the forces obligations under the Freedom of Information Act to provide any further information, as a gesture of goodwill, I have provided information, relative to questions 1, 2 and 4 of your request which has been easily retrievable and outlined below. 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.

Question 1:

Question 2:

Question 4:

CD10 relates to the offence of driving without due care and attention                                 

(This is a response under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and disclosed on 08/04/2025)