Hate crime incidents 999/2025

FOI Reference: 999/2025

Request:

Please outline the percentage of hate crime incidents over each of the last 5 years that resulted in A) an officer attending the incident B) an officer meeting with the victim face-to-face.

Clarification:

The applicant confirmed that their request was referring to hate crimes and not non-hate crime incidents.

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 B 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 B 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 305.75 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 B 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 B of the request would require the individual interrogation of hate crimes that have an associated Niche file/occurrence over the time frame specified to ascertain if an officer met the victim face to face. It has been established that for the period as specified within the request (i.e. 2020 – 2025) there are a total 3,669 hate crimes with an associated Niche file/occurrence that would require manually researching/reviewing. It has been estimated that it would take a minimum of 5 minutes to research/review a single file/occurrence for relevance to question B of your request as outlined above, resulting in the following broken down time estimate.

2020 – 2025* = 3,699 files/occurrences at a min of 5 mins per file = 305.75 hours

(*up to 30/09/25)

Total of 305.75 hours to complete task and request

Please note: A response to question A of your request has been outlined at the end to the document and provided as a gesture of goodwill outside of the FOI act.

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, however with due regard to the time estimate provided above it is unlikely that refining your request will fall under the 18 hours as the same method and format will have to be undertaken. 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 Force’s 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 question A 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 A:

(This is a response under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and disclosed on 12/11/2025)