Public processions 732/2026

FOI Reference: 732/2026

Request:

I am writing to make a request for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. My request relates to public processions in your force area since 7 October 2023 and covers three  specific points below.

REQUEST 1 — Notified Processions

Please provide a list of all public processions formally notified to Dyfed-Powys Police under Section 11 of the Public Order Act 1986 between 7 October 2023 and the date of your response.

For each procession, please provide only the following fields as recorded
on the notification:

    a) Date and name of the procession
    b) Proposed route or start and end location
    c) Name of the organising body or individual (if stated)
    d) Expected number of participants (if stated)

REQUEST 2 — Unnotified Processions

Please provide any records held by Dyfed-Powys Police of public processions that took place in your force area without the advance notification required by Section 11 of the Public Order Act 1986, between 7 October 2023 and the date of your response.

If such records are held, please provide for each:

    a) Date of the procession
    b) Location or area where it took place
    c) Brief description of the event (if recorded)

If no such records are held separately from general crime or incident records, please confirm this in your response.

REQUEST 3 — Enforcement Action

Please provide the number of individuals against whom enforcement action has been taken under Section 11(7) of the Public Order Act 1986 between 7 October 2023 and the date of your response.

Please break this down by outcome where possible:

    a) Number charged, summonsed, or issued a postal requisition
    b) Number cautioned
    c) Number where investigation is ongoing or otherwise closed without charge

Note: I am asking for figures held by Dyfed-Powys Police. I understand that prosecution outcomes are held by the Crown Prosecution Service and am not requesting that data here.

For all three requests, I am not asking for any information relating to police operational plans, risk assessments, officer deployments, or intelligence material. I am only asking for records of the kind described above that are routinely recorded as part of normal force administration.

If any part of this request is refused, please specify the exemption(s) relied upon, confirm whether the public interest test has been applied, and advise whether the remaining parts of the request can be answered. Each of the three requests above may be treated as a separate request if that would help facilitate disclosure.

If you consider that responding to all three requests would exceed the appropriate limit under Section 12 of the FOIA 2000, please advise me of this before the response deadline rather than issuing an outright refusal. I would be happy to refine the scope of any part of the request on receipt of that advice. If it assists, please prioritise Request 1 (notified processions) in the first instance, as this is the information I most require.

 

Response 1:

I can confirm that Dyfed-Powys Police does hold the information requested, however some of that information is being exempted by virtue of Section 40(2) Personal Information. Please see the end of the document for an explanation of the applied exemption.

	YesCymru march	YesCymru march	Red Line march	Red Line march	Red Line march	Anti-immigration march	Save Our Scarlets march
Date and name of the procession	22/06/24	26/09/26	06/04/25	23/05/26	26/07/25	13/09/25	27/09/25
Proposed route or start and end location	Carmarthen Town Centre	Aberystwyth Town Centre	Carmarthen Town Centre	Cardigan Town Centre	Aberystwyth Town Centre	Newtown Town Centre	Sandy Water Park to Parc Y Scarlets, Llanelli
Name of the organising body or individual (if stated)	YesCymru	YesCymru	Carmarthen 4 Palestine	Palestine Solidarity Movement	S40(2) applies	S40(2) applies	S40(2) applies
Expected number of participants (if stated)	2000	3000	500	300	400	200	200

Response 2:

I can confirm that there is no information held/recorded by Dyfed Powys police

Response 3:

I can confirm that Dyfed-Powys Police does hold the information requested, the details of which are as follows:

• Zero (0)

Explanation of applied exemption:

Section 40(2) – Personal Information

Section 40(2) applies to third party personal data and is exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 if disclosure, in relation to data subject to law enforcement processing, would breach any of the data protection principles contained within Part 3 - Chapter 2 of the Data Protection Act 2018.

Under Section 34 within Chapter 2 “The Controller in relation to personal data is responsible for and must be able to demonstrate, compliance with” Chapter 2. Such information would not be released under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 unless there is a strong public interest. One of the main differences between the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and the Data Protection Act 2018 is that any information released under FOI is released into the public domain, not just the individuals requesting the information and disclosure under the Act must be made with that in mind. As such, any release that identifies any individuals through releasing their personal data, even third party personal data is exempt.

Personal data is defined under Section 3 of the Data Protection Act 2018 as:

“(2) ‘Personal data’ means any information relating to an identified or identifiable living individuals (subject to subsection (14)(c)).

(3) ‘Identifiable living individuals’ means a living individuals who can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to—

(a) An identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data or an online identifier, or

(b) One or more factors specific to the physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or social identity of the individuals.”

All members of the public including those employed by the force have an intrinsic right to privacy and these rights are protected by virtue of the Human Rights Act, the Data Protection Act 2018 and the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK-GDPR) and a public authority must not interfere with that right. Any release of the information subject to the exemption is likely to compromise those rights.

Data Protection Act 2018

Part 3 – Law Enforcement – Chapter 2 Principles Section 35

The first data protection principle:

“(1) The first data protection principle is that the processing of personal data for any of the law enforcement purposes must be lawful and fair.”

UK - General Data Protection Regulation

Article 5 of the UK-GDPR – ‘Principles relating to processing of personal data’ provides:

“1. ‘Personal data’ shall be

(a) Processed lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner in relation to the data subject (‘lawfulness, fairness and transparency);

(b) Collected for specified, explicit and legitimate purposes and not further processed in a manner that is incompatible with those purposes; further processing for archiving purposes in the public interest…

2. The controller shall be responsible for, and be able to demonstrate compliance with, paragraph 1 (‘accountability’).”

Dyfed-Powys Police would not want to disclose any information that could potentially identify any individuals. In this particular case, to release the information requested would lead to the identification of and constitute the personal information of an identifiable individual. To release such information would be a direct breach of Data Protection legislation and as a consequence I am satisfied that Section 40(2) Personal Information exemption is applicable to the release of the information. The Section 40 exemption is in part qualified and in part absolute, in the present case it would be absolute as to release the information would breach Data Protection legislation and therefore there is no requirement to carry out a public interest test.

 

(This is a response under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and disclosed on 01/09/2026)

Os oes angen y wybodaeth yma arnoch yn Gymraeg, cysylltwch â: [email protected] If you require this information in Welsh, please contact: [email protected]