Rural crime 62/2025
FOI Reference: 62/2025
Request:
Follow-on from FOI Request 1077/2024
Would it be possible to refine my request to the following please?
In relation to question 4, these are the queries of most focus to us at present.
- How many of the following crimes were reported to your force in the 2023 calendar year AND 2024 calendar year so far (up to 10/11/2024)
- Reports of livestock attacks
- Reports of Hare coursing
- Reports of fly tipping
- Reports of wildlife crime
- Report of theft Quad Bike
If you were able to provide information on the number of prosecutions for livestock attacks (dog worrying) and machinery thefts (Quads) that would be very welcomed, time allowing of course.
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 919 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 relation to your request is not held in an easily retrievable format.
A key word search was conducted by the data engineers for the previous FOI using all terms mentioned in original request, which was utilised for the time estimate. However, the key word search results do not indicate which record is associated with each key word. Therefore, we would still have to review all previous records to identify whether any of the records are associated with the type of reports mentioned in this follow up request.
Jan 2023 – 6 records x 10 minutes per record = 1 hour
Feb 2023 - 7 records x 10 minutes per record = 1.17 hours
Mar 2023 - 7 records x 10 minutes per record = 1.17 hours
Apr 2023 - 6 records x 10 minutes per record = 1 hour
May 2023 - 11 records x 10 minutes per record = 1.83 hours
Jun 2023 - 16 records x 10 minutes per record = 2.67 hours
Jul 2023 - 15 records x 10 minutes per record = 2.5 hours
Aug 2023 - 25 records x 10 minutes per record = 4.17 hours
Sep 2023 - 15 records x 10 minutes per record = 2.5 hours
Oct 2023 - 25 records x 10 minutes per record = 4.17 hours
Nov 2023 - 26 records x 10 minutes per record = 4.3 hours
Dec 2023 - 49 records x 10 minutes per record = 8.17 hours
2023 - 208 records x 10 minutes per record = 34.67 hours
Jan 2024 - 529 records x 10 minutes per record = 88.17 hours
Feb 2024 - 459 records x 10 minutes per record = 76.5 hours
Mar 2024 - 448 records x 10 minutes per record = 74.7 hours
Apr 2024 - 543 records x 10 minutes per record = 90.5 hours
May 2024 - 597 records x 10 minutes per record = 99.5 hours
Jun 2024 - 526 records x 10 minutes per record = 87.7 hours
Jul 2024 - 453 records x 10 minutes per record = 75.5 hours
Aug 2024 - 516 records x 10 minutes per record = 86 hours
Sep 2024 - 613 records x 10 minutes per record = 102 hours
Oct 2024 - 433 records x 10 minutes per record = 72 hours
Nov (up to 11/11/2024) 191 records x 10 minutes per record = 32 hours
2024 – 5,308 records x 10 minutes per record = 885 hours
Grand Total (5,516 records x 10 minutes per record) = 919 hours
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 me.
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 06/03/2025)
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