Letters and Parcels 828/23
FOI Reference: 828/2023
Request:
- From August 1st 2022 to July 31st 2023, how many parcels (ie. not a postcard, letter, or flat envelope) did your organisation receive? If the precise data isn’t available, please provide an estimate.
- From August 1st 2022 to July 31st 2023, how many letters did your organisation receive? If the precise data is not available, please provide an estimate.
- From August 1st 2022 to July 31st 2023, how many mail items (including packages, letters, and flat envelopes) did you receive that were deemed ‘suspicious’?
This might include:
- Parcels with protruding wires, aluminium foil, or oil stains
- Mail items emitting a peculiar odour
- Greasy or oily patches on the mail item
- Mail items sealed in such a way so as to encourage opening them at a particular end
- Unusually printed address that might include spelling errors
- Adverse physical reaction to the handling of the mail item – e.g., itching or irritation
- No return address or return address that cannot be verified
- Unusual postmark or no postmark
- In relation to question 3, how many of these suspicious mail items actually contained something dangerous / unpleasant / illegal?
This might include:
- Substances and objects which may explode
- Gases which have been compressed, liquefied, or dissolved under pressure
- Flammable liquids and solids
- Biological substances
- Asbestos
- Controlled drugs and narcotics
- Corrosives
- Live creatures, insects, and invertebrates
- Waste, dirt, filth, or refuse
- Weapons and sharp objects
- Poisons, toxic liquids, solids, and gases
- Obscene publications or unlawful indecent images
Please feel free to disregard this question if it will take too long to answer.
- In relation to question 4, how many of these mail items did your organisation report to the police?
- From August 1st 2022 to July 31st 2023, how many unpleasant / threatening letters did your organisation receive?
This might include:
- Letters containing threats to the organisation or a member of the organisation
- Letters containing hate speech
- Letters containing blackmail
- Letters constituting harassment
- If possible, what process do you have in place for receiving inbound mail?
Please select all that apply.
- a) A record is kept of all packages and letters that arrived
- b) All mail items are scanned on delivery
- c) The mailroom is under 24/7 surveillance
- d) All mail is tracked all the way to the end recipient (if an individual)
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 6 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 6 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 216.67 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 question 6 of your request is not held in an easily retrievable format. Therefore, in order to establish what information, if any, is held would require the individual interrogation of all letters received covering the period of a year to ascertain a response to question 6. Although the specific number of letters we receive has not been recorded it has been estimated that we would receive approximately 13,000 letters in the period of a year and it has also been estimated that at the very least it would take a minimum of 1 minute to review a letter for relevance to question 6 of your request as outlined above, resulting in the following broken down time estimate.
13,000 letters at 1 min per letter = 216.67 hours
Total of 216.67 hours to complete task and the whole of the request.
Please note: A response to the remainder of the request i.e. questions 1-5 & 7 can be provided within the 18 hour time limit. However, please also be advised that should the request be refined, it does not remove the Force’s right to cite exemptions if relevant.
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.
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. 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 10/10/23)