Licensing Officer complaints 833/2025

FOI Reference: 833/2025

Request

I want to request the following information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 for the period 1 January 2010 to 1 January 2015:

1. The total number of complaints and/or reports of criminal offences (including misconduct in public office) made to your force by:

• • members of the public
  • businesses
  • serving or retired police officers

against Licensing Police Officers.

2. Of these cases:

• • How many were formally investigated?
  • What were the outcomes of each investigation (e.g., substantiated, not substantiated, withdrawn, etc.)?

3. Of those investigated, how many resulted in:

• • criminal charges being brought
  • acquittals
  • convictions

I want to request the following information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 for the period 1 January 2015 to 1 January 2020:

1. The total number of complaints and/or reports of criminal offences (including misconduct in public office) made to your force by:

• • members of the public
  • businesses
  • serving or retired police officers

against Licensing Police Officers.

2. Of these cases:

• • How many were formally investigated?
  • What were the outcomes of each investigation (e.g., substantiated, not substantiated, withdrawn, etc.)?

3. Of those investigated, how many resulted in:

• • criminal charges being brought
  • acquittals
  • convictions

I want to request the following information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 for the period 1 January 2020 to 1 January 2025:

1. The total number of complaints and/or reports of criminal offences (including misconduct in public office) made to your force by:

• • members of the public
  • businesses
  • serving or retired police officers

against Licensing Police Officers.

2. Of these cases:

• • How many were formally investigated?
  • What were the outcomes of each investigation (e.g., substantiated, not substantiated, withdrawn, etc.)?

3. Of those investigated, how many resulted in:

• • criminal charges being brought
  • acquittals
  • convictions

I want to request the following information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 for the period 1 January 2025 to 31 July 2025

1. The total number of complaints and/or reports of criminal offences (including misconduct in public office) made to your force by:

• • members of the public
  • businesses
  • serving or retired police officers

against Licensing Police Officers.

2. Of these cases:

• • How many were formally investigated?
  • What were the outcomes of each investigation (e.g., substantiated, not substantiated, withdrawn, etc.)?

3. Of those investigated, how many resulted in:

• • criminal charges being brought
  • acquittals
  • convictions

Clarification to assist processing:

For this request, “Licensing Police Officers” refers to officers whose primary role during the relevant period was within the Licensing Unit or equivalent department responsible for the regulation and enforcement of alcohol licensing, late-night venues, or related licensing matters.

If exact figures are not available, please provide the nearest available recorded statistics and specify the basis for any estimates.

 

Response Q1

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 583 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 respect of Question 2 & 3 of your request 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 7,000 records, in order to establish whether they were handled by investigation or ‘Outside of schedule 3’  and the outcome of each investigation.

It has also been established that it would take a minimum of 5 minutes to review and obtain the information for a single record in respect of your request. 

The process outlined results in the below time estimate.

7,000 records x 5 minutes = 583 hours

Time estimate to complete task = 583 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 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 question 1 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.

Complaints made by Members of Public

2010-2015- Total complaints 1510

2015-2020- Total complaints 1425

2020-2025- Total complaints made 4423

1/1/2025- 31/7/25 Total complaints made 512

Police officers cannot make complaints against the Force they serve in.

Any complaints made by police officers to Dyfed Powys Police Professional Standards Department will not be those serving with DPP. Additionally, PSD do not capture complainant’s occupation, therefore there is no data on serving and retired police officers.

Additionally, the PSD system does not distinguish the role of a police officer beyond Uniform , CID and firearms, therefore does not hold data on the number of complaints against Licensing police officers. (In DPP, the licensing officers also tend to be civilians and the duties are not carried out by warranted police officers, although they may accompany a licensing officer (to provide the power of entry).

 

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

(This is a response under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and disclosed on 08/10/2025)

Os oes angen y wybodaeth yma arnoch yn Gymraeg, cysylltwch â: [email protected] If you require this information in Welsh, please contact: [email protected]