Peregrine Falcons 88/2024
FOI Reference: 88/2024
Request:
My request for information is about Dyfed-Powys Police searches on peregrine falcon breeding facilities, or individuals believed to be involved in acquiring, keeping or selling peregrine falcons.
I would like the following data for the period from now going back until the year 2015 inclusive.
1a. The date of the search.
1b. Location of the search and name of business/individual that was the target of it Reason for searching the house/premises of that individual/business Organisations that were partnered on the search.
1c. Evidence seized from that search.
1d. Any further actions taken as a result of the search, including items seized, further police investigation, or any convictions/restrictions imposed on the business/individual as a result of it.
2. I would also like to know if Dyfed-Powys Police has been in communications with authorities or individuals in Bahrain, United Arab Emirates or Saudi Arabia regarding concerns about possible illegality within the legal trade of peregrine falcons. I would like to have that information for all years since, and including, 2015.
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 Section1(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 Questions 1-2 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 Questions 1-2 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 59 hours to comply with your request. The regulations can be located @ www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2004/3244
The Freedom of Information Department has been advised that the information in respect of your request is not held in an easily retrievable format. Therefore, in order to establish what information, if any, is held in relation to Questions 1 – 2 of the request would require the individual interrogation of each wildlife related report in order to establish whether the any of the following listed keywords were recorded as an element of the report, ‘Peregrine Falcon’, ‘Peregrine Falcon breeding facilities’, and ‘Bahrain’, ‘United Arab Emirates’ or ‘Saudi Arabia’.
It has been established that for the period as specified within the request (i.e. 2015 - 2024) there are a total of 352 reports that would require researching.
It has been estimated that it would take a minimum of 10 minutes to research a single record for relevance to Question 1 – 2 of your request as outlined above, resulting in the following broken down time estimate.
352 wildlife related reports x 10 minutes = 59 hours
Total time estimate to complete whole request = 59 hours.
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 05/04/24)