Cannabis cultivation and brothels 479/2026

FOI Reference: 479/2026

Request

1. Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, please provide the following information for the period 1 January 2020 to 31 December 2025:

The number of recorded offences, investigations, or incidents relating to:

a) cannabis cultivation, cannabis production, cannabis farms, or cannabis factories. 

b) keeping or managing a brothel (Home Office offence code 024/19).

Where possible, please state whether the premises relating to the offences/investigations/incidents were classified as residential or commercial; the property type (e.g. private dwelling, flat, HMO, social housing, industrial unit, retail premises, hotel, short-term let); whether the premises were owner-occupied, privately rented, socially rented, or of unknown tenure.

I am not requesting addresses, names, full postcodes, or any information capable of identifying individuals.

E.g. "In 2022, there were 100 investigations relating to cannabis cultivation. Of those, 40 related to privately-rented properties." 

Clarification

The information we are seeking relates to crimes, specifically investigations into cannabis cultivation or brothel keeping offences, and the types of premises used for these crimes. Whether or not any individual was charged or convicted is less material to our request than the fact that an investigation was launched and such a crime was discovered. 

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 26 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 question 1 (a) 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 306 records, as a time estimate would be required to identify the type of property, as it not a recorded field, and likely to be mentioned in the crime log instead of summary.

It has also been established that it would take a minimum of 5 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:-

306 records x 5 minutes = 25.5 hours

Time estimate to complete task = 26 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.

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 part of Q1 (a), and Q 1(b) 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 (a) (Part of)

I can confirm that Dyfed-Powys Police does hold the information requested, as outlined below.

Volumes below are all `Produce/Cultivation of Controlled Drugs’ Offences with `Cannabis’ mentioned in the crime summary’ for pre-NICHE Data (Old system - 01/01/2020– 11/05/2023) and all `Production of a cannabis plant’ offences for NICHE data (New system- post 12/05/2023).

Response Q1 (b)

I can confirm that Dyfed-Powys Police does hold the information requested, as outlined below:-

0 crime records in this period (1 January 2020 to 31 December 2025).

(This is a response under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and disclosed on 30/06/2026)