Hate Crimes 261/23
FOI Reference: 261/2023
Request:
This is an information request relating to the number of hate crimes investigated and charged.
Please include the following information for the 2019/20, 2020/21 and 2021/22 financial years:
The number of crimes investigated under the following HO codes:
066/23
066/24
066/25
066/26
066/27
066/28
066/45
066/46
066/47
066/48
066/49
066/50
066/51
066/52
125/09
125/11
125/12
125/58
125/61
125/63
The number of crimes investigated which resulted in a charge for each of the above
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 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 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 245 hours) to comply with your request. The regulations can be located @
www.legislation.hmso.gov.uk/si/si2004/20043244.htm
The Freedom of Information department has been advised that the information in respect of your request is not held in an easily retrievable format as Dyfed Powys Police are not required to record down to the individual offence. The codes requested fall under umbrella categories as laid out within the Home Office Counting Rules. Codes 66/23, 66/24, 66/25, 66/26, 66/27, 66/28, 66/45, 66/46, 66/47, 66/48, 66/49, 66/50, 66/51 and 66/52 all come under the category of Affray which in total includes 111 offences. Therefore, in order to establish what information, if any, is held in relation to the above codes would require the individual interrogation of all offences under the category of affray over the time frame specified to identify if the offence question related to one of the above listed codes. In addition to this codes 125/58, 125/61 and 125/63 do not appear within the Home Office Counting Rules on their own but are recorded together under code 125/82 which itself is recorded under the umbrella category of Racially or Religiously Aggravated Public Fear, Alarm or Distress (Racialfad) which includes two other offences and therefore would need to be reviewed for relevance to this request as outlined above. It has been established that for the period as specified within the request there are a total 1470 records that would require researching/reviewing. It has been estimated that it would take a minimum of 10 minutes to research a single record for relevance to of your request as outlined above, resulting in the following broken down time estimate.
19/20 = 404 (260 affray; 144 Racialfad) records at 10 minutes per record = 67.33 hours
20/21 = 475 (264 affray; 211 Racialfad) records at 10 minutes per record = 79.17 hours
21/22 = 591 (311 affray; 280 Racialfad) records at 10 minutes per record = 98.50hours
Total of 245 hours to complete task
Please note: In addition to the above, codes 125/9, 125/11 and 125/12 do have their own individual codes on Dyfed Powys Police systems and a response in relation to your request along with the umbrella codes relating to Affray and Racialfad have been outlined at the end of the document, which have been provided as a gesture of goodwill and outside of the FOI act.
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, however with due regard to the time estimate provided above it is unlikely that refining your request will fall under the 18 hours as the same method and format will have to be undertaken. 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.
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 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.
|
Year/code |
Charged |
Grand Total |
|
2019/2020 |
145 |
2,422 |
|
AFFRAY |
51 |
260 |
|
HARASS4 (125/9) |
28 |
710 |
|
HARASS4A (125/11) |
15 |
1,091 |
|
HARASS5 (125/12) |
40 |
217 |
|
RACIALFAD |
11 |
144 |
|
2020/2021 |
155 |
3,443 |
|
AFFRAY |
41 |
264 |
|
HARASS4 (125/9) |
25 |
811 |
|
HARASS4A (125/11) |
28 |
1,904 |
|
HARASS5 (125/12) |
49 |
253 |
|
RACIALFAD |
12 |
211 |
|
2021/2022 |
144 |
5,880 |
|
AFFRAY |
29 |
311 |
|
HARASS4 (125/9) |
21 |
1,232 |
|
HARASS4A (125/11) |
35 |
3,677 |
|
HARASS5 (125/12) |
51 |
380 |
|
RACIALFAD |
8 |
280 |
|
Grand Total |
444 |
11,745 |
(This is a response under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and disclosed on 03/04/23)