County Lines 26/2025

FOI Reference: 26/2025

Request:

I would like to be provided with the following information if it is available:

1. The number of children (17 and under) who were flagged as victims of Child Criminal Exploitation in relation to county lines drug dealing and separately, the number of these children who were recorded as being in care (looked-after child). If possible, with age, gender and ethnicity provided for each sets.
2. The number of children (17 and under) who were charged with drug supply offences related to county lines drug dealing and separately, the number of these children who were recorded as being in care (looked-after child). If possible, with age, gender and ethnicity provided for both sets.
3. Number of missing incidents of children (17 and under) who were missing from care with the following information provided:

1. 1. Age
   2. Gender
   3. Ethnicity
   4. Location reported missing from (local or out of force area)
   5. Whether the child had been assigned a child criminal exploitation/county lines flag.
   6. If possible, the type of care setting child was missing from.

Could I please have the above information for the following dates: between 1st January 2022 to 1st January 2025.

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 question 3 of 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 question 3 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 28.85 hours) to comply with 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 the information in respect of question 3d – f of your request is not held in an easily retrievable format. Therefore, in order to establish what information, if any, is held in relation to question 3d – f of the request would require the individual interrogation of all incidents of missing children to ascertain if the information is held/recorded for questions d – f. It has been established that for the period as specified within the request there are a total of 577 missing children incidents that would require researching. It has been estimated that it would take a minimum of 3 minutes to research a single incident for relevance to questions 3d – f of your request as outlined above, resulting in the following broken down time estimate.

2022 – 2025  = 577 incidents at 3 minutes per incident = 28.85 hours

Total of 2,138.50 hours to complete task and request

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 the Freedom of Information Unit.

Please note: A response in relation to questions 1 – 3c can be provided within the 18 hour time limit. Please also be advised that should the request be refined, it does not remove the Force’s right to cite exemptions if relevant.                                   

(This is a response under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and disclosed on 24/02/25)