Police callouts to fast food outlets 395/2026
FOI Reference: 395/2026
Request
I would like to request data related to anti-social behaviour at McDonalds, KFC, Burger King and Greggs locations within your force area over the past five years.
Please can you provide data on the total number of police call outs to each of these establishments for each year, broken down by the financial year, up to 31 March 2026.
Can you please split the offences by offence group and description.
This information should please also include the following details for each reported incident:
Date of incident
> Location (address) where the incident occurred – including whether this was inside or outside the restaurant
> Description of the incident, including any injuries sustained.
> Whether any action was taken by law enforcement – detailing what that was.
I can confirm that Dyfed-Powys Police does hold the information requested, as outlined below:-
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 27 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 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 160 record, as we cannot keyword search for each individual venue across the area. Also, we can only search by each individual brand, i.e. KFC, Greggs etc. There are also 3 different types of ASB reports on STORM(which these figures include). Prior to 2021 though, there was only 1 ASB category, therefore the figures cannot be split further.
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:-
Number of venues across the Force area:
12 McDonalds
5 Burger King
24 Greggs
5 KFC.
We can only search by each individual brand, i.e. KFC, Greggs etc.
There are also 3 different types of ASB reports on STORM(which these figures include). Prior to 2021 though, there was only 1 ASB category, therefore the figures cannot be split further.
Apr 2020 - March 2021
KFC – 2
Burger King – 2
McDonalds – 19
Greggs – 1
Total: 24
Apr 2021 - Mar 2022
KFC – 5
BK – 1
McDonalds – 11
Greggs – 1
Total 28
Apr 2022 - Mar 2023
KFC – 5
BK – 0
McDonalds – 27
Greggs – 5
Total 37
Apr 2023 - Mar 2024
KFC – 1
BK – 0
McDonalds – 11
Greggs – 3
Total 15
Apr 2024 - Mar 2025
KFC – 2
BK – 1
McDonalds – 17
Greggs – 0
Total 27
Apr 2025 - Mar 2026
KFC – 7
BK – 3
McDonalds – 18
Greggs – 1
Total 29
For these 160 incidents, this would take a total of 26.7 hours to research our system for the information requested.
160 x 10 minutes per record = 26.7 hours
Time estimate to complete task = 27 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 01/05/2026)
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