Stalking offences 296/2025

FOI Reference: 296/2025

Request

1. a) The total amount of reported stalking crimes under the codes HOCR codes of 008/65 and 008/66 for each year from 2017 to 2024 split by:

- stalking type - e.g cyber stalking/ online methods and all stalking

- age of suspect

- gender of suspect

1. b) The type of the victims reporting stalking crimes under the codes HOCR codes of 008/65 and 008/66 for each year from 2017 to 2024 split by:

- stalking type - e.g cyber stalking/ online methods and all stalking

- age of victim

- gender of victim

Clarification received

Please note by type of victim I mean separating the response by gender and age if possible

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 669 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 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 manually reviewing 4,014 records, due to the fact that we cannot break stalking offences down by those codes on our old IT system, which was upgraded to the new system in May 2023.  Therefore, we would have to manually review all stalking offences between 2017 – 2023 (up to 11/05/2023) to identify which ones relate to the specific codes.

It has also been established that it would take a minimum of 10 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.

2017 – 2023 (up to 11/05/2023) - 4,014 records x 10 minutes per record = 669 hours

Time estimate to complete task = 669 hours

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 1a 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.

New IT system’s Volumes of reported stalking crimes under the codes HOCR codes of 008/65 and 008/66:

2023 (from 12/05/2023) – 296

2024 – 346

Please note:

We are unable to answer the stalking type part of Q1a and Q1b, without manually reviewing all old system records identified from a manual trawl mentioned above, which exceeds 18 hours alone, as well as a further manual trawl of the new system. This would be a separate time estimate to the one above.

However, we could provide the age and gender of suspect, as well as age and gender of victim, through retrieving from the new system post May 2023, this would be within 18 hours. Or we could provide all stalking volumes, without filtering by codes, for 2018 to date with all demographics requested apart from stalking method type.

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.

(This is a response under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and disclosed on 29/04/2025)