Violence at football matches 307/2026

FOI Reference: 307/2026

Request:

I would like to make an application under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 for the following information:

1. Violence at Football Locations 

Please provide a count of all 'Violence Against the Person' offences that were recorded as taking place at the following location types in relation to football:

• Football Pitch / Playing Field
• Football stadium
• Football changing rooms (or at a sports facility)

1b. General Football-Related Violence 

Please provide the total number of crimes recorded with a "Football Related" flag or marker. For these incidents, please provide a breakdown of the victim type if recorded (e.g., Player, Spectator, Official, Police Officer).

For all identified incidents, please provide:

• The year of the incident.
• The specific offence (e.g., ABH, GBH, Common Assault).
• The outcome (e.g., Charge, Caution, Community Resolution, or No Further Action).

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 2 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 2 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 36.67 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 2 of your request is not held in an easily retrievable format as there is no specific football related flag/marker on our systems. Therefore, in order to establish what information, if any, is held in relation to the request would require the individual interrogation of all violence against the person offences with the keyword of “football” either in the summary of the crime and/or in the location address over the time frame specified to ascertain the context of the offence and if it was relevant to question 2 of the request. It has been established that for the timeframe requested (i.e. 2021 - 2025) there are a total 220 crime records that would require researching. It has been estimated that it would take a minimum of 10 minutes to research a single crime record for relevance to question 2 of your request as outlined above, resulting in the following broken down time estimate.

2021 = 44 crimes at a min of 10 mins per crime record = 7.33

2022 = 44 crimes at a min of 10 mins per crime record = 7.33

2023 = 43 crimes at a min of 10 mins per crime record = 7.17

2024 = 52 crimes at a min of 10 mins per crime record = 8.67

2025 = 37 crimes at a min of 10 mins per crime record = 6.17

Total of 36.67 hours to complete task

Please note: The same methodology as outlined above for question 2 will be applicable to question 1 of the request albeit using different keyword searches i.e. football pitch, playing field, sports ground, stadium, changing rooms.  This task has not been undertaken as the request has already exceeded the 18 hour time limit and no further work has been undertaken. Therefore, at this point in time we are unable to confirm if information in respect of question 1 can be retrieved within the 18 hour time limit. However, given the methodology outlined above it is likely that to answer question 1 would also exceed the 18 hour time limit.

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. 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.

(This is a response under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and disclosed on 24/03/2026)