Outstanding arrest warrants 1133/2025

FOI Reference: 1133/2025

Request

I am writing to request information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

This request concerns outstanding arrest warrants issued due to failure to appear in court, breach of bail, pre-trial absconding, or post-conviction absconding.

To minimise cost/time burden and avoid broad searches, all questions request existing, routinely held datasets or policy documents only.

Please provide the following:

1. Current Outstanding Warrants (as of your latest available month) The total number of individuals with outstanding arrest warrants.

A breakdown of these warrants by:

1. 1. Offence category (e.g., murder, rape/sexual assault, child sexual offences, GBH, fraud, domestic abuse, drugs offences)
   2. Warrant type (failure to appear / breach of bail / pre-trial / post-conviction)
   3. Year of issue (e.g., pre-2000, 2000-2009, 2010-2019, 2020-present)

The year of the oldest currently outstanding warrant and the offence category associated with it (no personal identifiers required).

2. Trends (Existing, Recorded Data Only) For each of the past five calendar years (2019-2023), please provide:

1. 1. Number of warrants issued
   2. Number of warrants executed

(If exact annual figures are not held, please supply the closest equivalent routinely held statistic.)

3. Policies, Risk Assessments & Procedures Does your force have a formal policy or SOP for reviewing, prioritising or executing outstanding warrants?

If yes, please provide the document or the relevant excerpt.

What risk assessment criteria are used to determine warrant priority? (e.g., offence severity, threat to life, repeat offending, safeguarding concerns)

Does your force maintain a dedicated team/unit for locating individuals with outstanding warrants?

If yes, please state its name and staffing level (if recorded).

4. Use of Databases and Inter-Agency Cooperation Are all outstanding warrants routinely entered onto the Police National Computer (PNC)?

Does your force use external databases (e.g., NHS, DVLA, credit reference agencies, Passport Office, benefits databases) for warrant tracing where legally permitted?

Please summarise any policies or agreements concerning information-sharing with other UK forces, NCA, or Interpol, where relevant.

5. Victim Communication and Safeguarding Does your force have a policy for notifying victims when a suspect or convicted offender subject to a warrant remains unlocated?

How many individuals with outstanding warrants (current total) are convicted but not yet sentenced?

Format and Clarifications

I am not requesting names, DOBs or any personal identifiers.

If parts of the request exceed the cost limit under s.12, please process the remainder and advise how I may refine the scope.

I can confirm that Dyfed-Powys Police does hold the information requested

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 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 21.5 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 5 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 129 cases, due to the fact that when a warrant is issued, we are not made aware of the status of the case therefore we would not be aware of how many outstanding warrants have been issued for individuals that have been convicted but not yet sentenced.  We would therefore have to check every outstanding warrant case for this information

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:-

129 cases x 10 minutes = 21.5 hours

Time estimate to complete task = 21.5 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.

(This is a response under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and disclosed on 10/12/2025)