Detaining EEA rough sleepers 1004/2022
FOI Reference: 1004/2022
Request:
In 2020, the Rough Sleeper Support Services provided enhanced powers for local authorities and registered charities in terms of determining a rough sleeper’s immigration status.
In the last two years (2021, 2022):
1a) Has your police force led, or been involved in, any operations aimed at detaining EEA nationals found rough sleeping under the new guidance mentioned above?
If so:
1b) please can you tell me the name(s) of the operation(s)?
1c) how many people in total were stopped and questioned as part of the operation(s)?
1d) how many people in total were detained as part of the operation(s)?
1e) how many people in total were issued with notices as part of the operation(s)?
1e) how many different locations were visited as part of the operation(s)? And if possible:
- where were the locations and the date of these visits?
- how many people were detained on each visit?
- how many people were issued with a notice on each visit?
2) If possible, can you tell me how many incidents on your database for the last six months involve both the phrases ‘rough sleeping’ and ‘immigration’?
3) Can I please have a copy of any information given/sent/shown to police officers to explain to them the new changes to the guidance about rough sleeping EEA nationals?
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 1,594.67 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 there is no specific tag/category to denote the phrases ‘rough sleeper’ and ‘immigration’. In addition to this, we are unable to conduct keyword searches on the relevant systems due to law enforcement issues. Therefore, in order to establish what information, if any, is held in relation to question 2 of the request would require the individual interrogation of all incidents under the category of ‘P-Safety/welfare’ to identify if the incident in question related to the phrases of ‘rough sleeper’ and ‘immigration’. It has been established that for a six month period of your request (i.e. 01.07.2022 – 31.12.22) there are a total of 9,568 incidents that would require researching/reviewing. It has been estimated that it would take a minimum of 10 minutes to research/review a single incident for relevance to question 2 of your request as outlined above, resulting in the following broken down time estimate.
01.07.2022 – 31.12.22 = 9,568 incidents@ 10 minutes per incident = 1,594.67 hours
Total of 1,594.67 hours to complete task
Please note: To answer this request in respect of the whole of the time frame outlined would exceed the amount of time already stipulated above. As the six month time period outlined above is already significantly over the 18 hour time limit, no further work has been undertaken in respect of the remainder of time frame specified.
Please also note: 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 questions 1 and 3 of 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.
There is no information held/recorded by Dyfed Powys police in relation to questions 1 and 3 of your request.
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.
(This is a response under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and disclosed on 24/01/23)