Wildlife officers and crimes 1022/2024
FOI Reference: 1022/2024
Request:
To make this query less onerous on police time please, I am only requesting data from 1 August 2023 until receipt date of FOI request.
1, Currently how many recognised wildlife trained full time Police officers do you have in your force? Date of FOI request receipt.
2, How many of these officers have undertaken College of Policing recognised training? Date of FOI request receipt.
3, Who was the service provider.
4, How many of these officers are full time Wildlife crime officers. Date of FOI request receipt.
5, How many wildlife incidents that have been reported to your force would fit the recording status below if they had notifiable status under Home Office counting rules?
Section 1 of the Protection of Badgers Act 1992 Section 2 of the Protection of Badgers Act 1992 Section 3 of the Protection of Badgers Act 1992 Section 1 of Wild Mammals Protection Act 1996 Section 1 of Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 Section 5 of Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 Section 9 of Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 Section 11 of Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 Section 30 of Game Act 1831 Section 5 of the Hunting Act 2004 Section 4 of Animal Welfare Act 2006 Section 8 of Animal Welfare Act 2006 Schedule 1 of Theft Act 1968 Section 27a of Salmon & Freshwater Fisheries Act 1975 Section 1 of Deer Act 1991 Section 2 of Deer Act 1991 Section 3 of Deer Act 1991 Section 1 of the Hunting Act 2004 Section 1 of the Night Poaching Act 1828 Section 18 of Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 Section 9(4A) of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 Section 14 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 Section 28P of the Wildlife & Countryside Act 1981 Regulation 43 Conservation of Habitats and Species Regs 2017 Regulation 54 Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2017
6, How many wildlife incidents below have been recorded as below?
Section 1 of the Protection of Badgers Act 1992 Section 2 of the Protection of Badgers Act 1992 Section 3 of the Protection of Badgers Act 1992 Section 1 of Wild Mammals Protection Act 1996 Section 1 of Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 Section 5 of Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 Section 9 of Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 Section 11 of Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 Section 30 of Game Act 1831 Section 5 of the Hunting Act 2004 Section 4 of Animal Welfare Act 2006 Section 8 of Animal Welfare Act 2006 Schedule 1 of Theft Act 1968 Section 27a of Salmon & Freshwater Fisheries Act 1975 Section 1 of Deer Act 1991 Section 2 of Deer Act 1991 Section 3 of Deer Act 1991 Section 1 of the Hunting Act 2004 Section 1 of the Night Poaching Act 1828 Section 18 of Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 Section 9(4A) of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 Section 14 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 Section 28P of the Wildlife & Countryside Act 1981 Regulation 43 Conservation of Habitats and Species Regs 2017 Regulation 54 Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2017
7, How many wildlife incident/crime reports have your force received that have been recorded as “generic/other” (Not to include Livestock Attacks)
8, How many Livestock Attacks has your force received in the time range.
9, How many of these “generic/other” wildlife incident/crime incidents have resulted in No Further Action by police.
10, How many of these “generic/other” wildlife incident/crime incidents have resulted in a Local resolution.
11, How many of these “generic/other” wildlife incident/crime incidents have resulted in a Conditional Caution.
12, How many of these “generic/other” wildlife incident/crime incidents have resulted in a charge.
Clarification Q:
- 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.
- When you ask for "reported" are you referring to 101/999 calls received?
- With regards to Q12, are you referring to those charged to court or found guilty at court?
Clarification A:
1, I am referring to incidents, question 6 would give me the answer between both.
2, both please, and online if appropriate.
3, Charge to court please, I am aware of the difficulties of the courts to find guilty.
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.
I can confirm that the cost of determining whether any information relative to this request is or isn’t held is above the amount to which we are legally required to respond therefore we are withholding the whole of the requested information since we consider that the Section 12 (2) exemption the Cost of Compliance exceeds the Appropriate Limit applies to it.
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. The following exemption has been applied to the whole of the information you have requested:
Section 12(2) – The cost of compliance exceeds the Appropriate Limit
Section 12(2) states: “…Subsection (1) does not exempt the public authority from its obligation to comply with paragraph (a) of section 1(1) unless the estimated cost of complying with that paragraph alone would exceed the appropriate limit.”
The cost of determining what information is held, if any, relevant to questions 5-12 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. between 19 - 37 hours) to comply with your request. The regulations can be located @ https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2004/3244
The Freedom of Information department has been advised that some of the information in respect of your request is not held in an easily retrievable format. The relevant department have reviewed the request and established that the required data is not currently retrievable through existing data reporting products and an existing script does not exist. Consequently, the steps required to initially understand if the data is available and subsequently complete the required extraction, verification, and analysis, through the writing of a new bespoke script, would exceed 18 hours. A breakdown of the steps required and the estimated time it would take per step is detailed below:
|
Stage |
Description |
Time estimate |
|
1 |
Review which server and database might contain the data required for the FOI request |
2 hours |
|
2 |
Identify and scope the necessary tables and columns that might hold the relevant data |
4 hours |
|
3 |
Consult with SMEs or system owners to confirm the selected tables and columns are appropriate |
4 hours |
|
4 |
Develop new script to extract the requested data |
4 hours |
|
5 |
Send the data extract to SMEs / system owners, to confirm accuracy |
4 hours |
|
6 |
(Steps 1-5 repeated should data be inaccurate) |
18 hours |
|
7 |
Data sent to the Performance Team to analyse and respond to FOI |
1 hour |
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 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
Dyfed Powys Police has 6 fully accredited Wildlife investigators.
An additional 2 are undergoing their training that should be completed by January 2025.
Question 2
6 have been trained by the National Wildlife Unit. This is accredited through the NWCU.
Question 3
NWCU.
Question 4
All 6 Officers are full time.
(This is a response under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and disclosed on 02/04/2025)
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