Anti-social behaviour incidents 976/2025

FOI Reference: 976/2025

Request

I am requesting daily-level data on Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) incidents, crimes, and related police and court outcomes covering the years 2002 to 2025. The data currently available on data.police.uk is aggregated monthly, but for research purposes, daily data is necessary to analyze the temporal relationship between national football matches and subsequent hate crimes, particularly in relation to players of colour in UK national football teams.

The dataset should include:

•     Date of each incident or crime,
•     Type/category of offence,
•     Outcome of police or court process where applicable,
•     Location data (if possible within privacy regulations).

Clarification received

To clarify, we are requesting hate crime data only, not anti-social behaviour data.

We would appreciate receiving data that includes all hate crime types, not limited to racial hate crimes.

Including ethnicity as one of the variables in the dataset would be helpful if this information is available and can be provided within privacy regulations.

Response

I can confirm that Dyfed-Powys Police does hold the information requested; however, we are exempting part of that information as we believe that the following exemptions are relevant:

Section 30(1)(a) Investigations and Proceedings conducted by Public Authorities

Section 30(1)(a) is a class-based qualified exemption. This means that the legislators when writing the legislation considered that the release of such information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 would cause harm to the public authority or individual concerned. There is therefore no requirement to carry out a HARM Test in respect of such information. However, there is a requirement to carry out a Public Interest Test in order to establish whether the public interest in maintaining the exemption may be outweighed by a wider public benefit in disclosure.

Section 30(1)(a) Investigations and Proceedings conducted by Public Authorities:

(1) Information held by a public authority is exempt information if it has at any time been held by the authority for the purposes of -

(a) Any investigation which the public authority has a duty to conduct with a view to it being ascertained (i) whether a person should be charged with an offence, or (ii) whether a person charged with an offence is guilty of it.

Public Interest Test

Considerations favouring disclosure:

Disclosure of the information would improve the public’s knowledge and awareness and would provide satisfaction to the public that these cases are investigated thoroughly and offenders are being dealt with accordingly.

Considerations favouring non-disclosure:

This exemption covers information held at any time for the purpose of an investigation, whether the case is ongoing, closed or abandoned. To release specific details of an ongoing investigation, as in this case, could undermine and prejudice those investigations. This would impact on the forces’ future law enforcement capabilities by hindering the prevention or detection of crime.

Balancing Test

After considering the advantages and disadvantages in disclosure, it falls upon Dyfed-Powys Police to conduct a balance test on the issues. The strongest argument for disclosure, which is public awareness, needs to be weighed against the strongest arguments for non-disclosure, which in this case is that the release would undermine and prejudice ongoing investigations, which would impact on the forces’ future law enforcement capabilities by hindering the prevention or detection of crime.

Therefore, in all the circumstances of the case, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.

Section 30(1)(a)

335 x Ongoing investigations

Please see attachments 1 & 2:

Attachment 1: Jan 2018 - May 2023

Attachment 2: May 2023 - Sept 2025

Please note:

The attached data from dates between 2008 – 2025. Unfortunately we do not hold data that cover the period 2002-2007 for this request.

Due to a change in our Police recording system in May 2023, the data provided has been provided in two separate tabs (Jan 2018 – May ’23) – (May ’23 – Sept ’25).

The data on the old system we can only provide Offence code and MO, as we are unable to extract the data listing the offence.

An outcome in Attachment 1 on 06/03/2023 shows as Op. Signature.  Please see below explanation of what this operation is:-

“Operation Signature is a standardized national initiative introduced to identify and support vulnerable victims of fraud.

It provides preventative and supportive measures intended to protect victims and safeguard them from further targeting.

An important strand of Op Signature is its wider messaging and prevention advice, working with statutory and voluntary agencies to influence change.”

It should be noted that owing to the systems adopted by Dyfed-Powys Police in relation to the recording of such matters the information provided may or may not be accurate. Police Forces in the United Kingdom are routinely required to provide crime statistics to government bodies and the recoding criteria is set nationally.  However, the systems used for recording these figures are not generic, nor are the procedures used locally in capturing the data.  It should be noted that for these reasons this Force’s response to your questions should not be used for comparison purposes with any other response you may receive.           

(This is a response under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and disclosed on 05/11/2025)