Dangerous Dogs Act 1991 enforcement 1048/2025
FOI Reference: 1048/2025
Request
I am requesting information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 relating to your enforcement of the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991 (Sections 1 and 3).
Please provide data held by your force for the period 1 January 2020 to the present date, covering the following:
- Dog Seizures
- The total number of dogs seized under:
a) Section 1 of the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991
b) Section 3 of the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991
Please provide totals for each calendar year.
- Incident Reports
- The total number of incidents recorded or reported under Section 3 of the Act (i.e. dogs dangerously out of control) for the same period.
- Public Reports
- The total number of reports or complaints received from members of the public alleging a dog to be of a prohibited type under Section 1 for the same period.
- Current Custody Data (2025)
- The total number of dogs currently held in police kennels under (a) Section 1 and under (b) Section 3.
- What is the maximum capacity of kennel space for your force and does you force operate the IES - if so how many S1 dogs are currently under this scheme
- Breed or Type Breakdown
- Where recorded, a breakdown of the breeds or types of dogs seized under Section 3 since 1 January 2020.
- Kennelling Costs
- The average daily cost to kennel and care for a seized dog.
- Whether these costs differ depending on whether a dog is seized under Section 1 or Section 3.
- Dog Legislation Officers (DLOs)
- Whether the force employs or assigns a dedicated Dog Legislation Officer (DLO) or equivalent role responsible for cases under either (a) Section 1 and/or (b) Section 3. Or will a DLO cover both?
- If applicable, the number of DLOs currently employed or assigned within your force.
- Kennelling Arrangements
- Please confirm whether seized dogs are:
a) Held in police-operated facilities, or
b) Housed with contracted third-party kennels, rescues, or welfare organisations.
Please advise the total number of spaces for a and b.
If any of the requested data are not held centrally, please confirm this and provide the information that is held.
If this request exceeds the cost limit, please advise how it could be refined to stay within the limit.
I am happy to accept the information in any readily available format, such as an existing table, spreadsheet, or summary report.
If figures are only available for part of the date range or grouped by financial year instead of calendar year, please provide them in that form.
I do not require individual case files or personal data — only aggregated totals or statistics as already held by the force.
I am gathering national data on how the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991 is enforced across UK police forces.
This information will be used to compare patterns in Section 1 and Section 3 enforcement, assess consistency in DLO deployment, and evaluate costs associated with seized dogs.
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 47 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 2 & 3 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 279 records.
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.
Incidents involving dogs are recorded on our Police system under different categories, either P-Animal or C-assault (if the dog has injured someone) dependant on the circumstances of the incident. These types of incidents would be tagged for the ‘Dog Legislation Officer’-DLO.
Between 01/01/2020 and 30/09/2025 there were 6868 P-Animal incidents recorded. Of these, 136 incidents were tagged for the DLO. This would take 23 hours to research our system for these 136 incidents for the information requested for incidents reported under Sect.3.
Between 01/01/2020 and 30/09/2025 there were 2329 C-assault incidents recorded on our system. Of these 143 incidents were tagged for the DLO. This would take 24 hours to research for these 143 incidents for the information requested for incidents reported under Sect.3.
136 incidents x 10 minutes = 23 hours
143 incidents x 10 minutes = 24 hours
Time estimate to complete task = 27 hours
Please note:
Even though there is a DLO tag on some of these incidents, there may been further incidents in these categories that the tags may have either not been placed on the log initially or removed after being dealt with by the DLO.
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.
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 questions 1 & questions 4 - 8 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.
Response Q1
Section 1 – 75
Section 3 - 79
Response Q2 & Response Q3
Section 12(1) Exemption applied
Response Q4
Section 1 – 10 dogs
Section 3 – 3 dogs.
We do not currently operate IES
We do not have a set amount of kennel spaces.
Response Q5
19 Not stated
9 x Staffy
8 x Pocket Bully
5 x Collie
4 x German Shepherd
3 x Bulldog
14 x American Bulldog
3 x XL Bully
2 x Spaniel
1 x Bull Terrier
1 x American Akita
1 x Great Dane
1 x Akita
1 x Chihuahua
1 x Mastiff
1 x Boxer
1 x Dutch Herder
1 x Shar-pei
1 x Mastador
1 x Micro Bully
1 x Rottweiller
Response Q6
The daily cost of kennelling is £25 per day. Costs do not differ.
Response Q7
We currently have 4 DLO’s in force.
They will cover section (1) and section (3) offences.
Response Q8
Dogs are housed with contracted 3rd party kennels.
Number of spaces varies.
It should be noted that as a result of the systems adopted by Dyfed-Powys Police in relation to the recording of such information that the information released may or may not be accurate.
(This is a response under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and disclosed on 11/11/2025)
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