Sexual grooming offences 858/2022

FOI Reference: 858/2022

Request:

1. In the last financial year 2021/22 please state how many (a) crimes were logged and (b) people charged by your force with sexual grooming (Home Office Offence code: 88A)?

2. In relation to the reports of the crimes having been committed (rather than the cases of people being charged) is there a facility on your computer databases to flag if a particular website or social media platform was used as the basis for the communication?

3. If you did record the sites/platforms could you provide me with the breakdown of how many crime cases that were logged related to each website/platform, making sure to identify the website/platform.

Response 1:

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

Response 2&3:

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

It should be noted that owing to the systems adopted by Dyfed-Powys Police in relation to the recording of such matters the information provided may or may not be accurate.       

Police Forces in the United Kingdom are routinely required to provide crime statistics to government bodies and the recoding criteria is set nationally.  However, the systems used for recording these figures are not generic, nor are the procedures used locally in capturing the data.  It should be noted that for these reasons this Force’s response to your questions should not be used for comparison purposes with any other response you may receive.       

(This is a response under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and disclosed on 13/12/22)