Sexual crimes against children 152/2024

FOI Reference: 152/2024

Request:

Where all of the following conditions apply:

1. financial year 2021/22
2. the offence code was in use by Dyfed-Powys during the timeframe
3. one or more victims is under 18 at time of incident

please state, per offence code, how many of the following crimes were recorded by Dyfed-Powys, broken down by crime outcome code (1-22), and whether the victim was under 18, 18 and over, or where victim age is unknown:

1. Abduction (Home Office offence codes: 02500, 02501, 02502, 02503, 02504, 02505)
2. Soliciting by a man (Home Office offence codes: 02700)
3. Abuse of children through prostitution and pornography (Home Office offence codes: 07100, 07101, 07102, 07103, 07104, 07105, 07106, 07107, 07108, 07109, 07110, 07111, 07112, 07113, 07114, 07115, 07117)
4. Trafficking For Sexual Exploitation (Home Office offence codes: 07200, 07201, 07202, 07203, 07204, 07205, 07206)
5. Abuse of Trust - Sexual Offences(Home Office offence codes: 07300, 07301, 07302, 07303, 07304, 07305, 07306, 07307, 07308, 07309, 07310, 07311, 07312, 07313, 07314, 07315, 07316, 07317, 07318)
6. Gross Indecency with Children(Home Office offence codes: 07400, 07401, 07402)
7. Obscene publications etc and protected sexual material(Home Office offence codes: 08600, 08601, 08602, 08603, 08604, 08605, 08606, 08607, 08608, 08609, 08610, 08611, 08612, 08613, 08614, 08615, 08616, 08617)
8. Miscellaneous Sexual Offences(Home Office offence codes: 08800, 08801, 08802, 08803, 08804, 08805, 08806, 08807, 08809, 08810, 08811)

Please note that some of these offences may be superseded by newer offence codes and no longer used - if that is the case, please report a zero result for that code. 

Clarification 22.02.24

“Thanks for getting back to me. I have asked the same question of all the UK police forces, so I can't add any different offence codes in. Are you able to access those codes for that time period?” 

Additional request 23.02.24

‘I've just started to receive some other data from other police forces, and they have provided me with 013/01 and 013/02 offence code data. Is it possible I could get those added to my request? It would save me doing another FOI down the line... if it's not possible, thank you anyway’ 

 

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 1 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 providing you with the information requested in respect 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 261 hours) to comply with this part of your request. The regulations can be located @ www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2004/3244

It has been established that there are a total of 1566 crime records that cover the period of your request, that would need reviewing to see if there was more than one victim and to then see the age of the victims if more than one.  It has also been established that it would take a minimum of 10 minutes to review and obtain the information for a single crime record in respect of your request (as outlined above).  The process outlined results in the below time estimate.

1. One or more victims under 18 – 38 x 10mins = 6.3 hours & Victim under 18, over 18 or unknown - 38 x 10mins = 6.3 hours.
2. 1 case, Outcome 16, Victim age unknown.
3. 1 case, Outcome 14, Victim - under 18.
4. One or more victims under 18 – 39 x 10mins = 6.5 hours & Victim under 18, over 18 or unknown - 39x 10mins = 6.5 hours.
5. 5 cases, Outcome 16 x 2 crimes, Outcome 15 x 2 crimes, Outcome 21 x 1 crime, 5 crime – victim under 18 at time of incident.
6. One or more victims under 18 – 989 x 10mins = 164.8 hours & Victim under 18, over 18 or unknown – 989 x 10mins = 164.8 hours.
7. One or more victims under 18 – 357 x 10mins = 59.5 hours & Victim under 18, over 18 or unknown – 357 x 10mins = 59.5 hours.
8. One or more victims under 18 – 143 x 10mins = 23.8 hours & Victim under 18, over 18 or unknown – 143 x 10mins = 23.8 hours.

1566 crime reports x 10 minutes

Time estimate to complete task = 261 hours

 

In accordance therefore 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, 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 public authorities right to cite exemptions if relevant.

                                                                                                           

It should be noted that as a result of the systems adopted by Dyfed-Powys Police in relation to the recording of such information that the information released may or may not be accurate.

Furthermore, it should also be noted that Police forces in the United Kingdom are routinely required to provide crime statistics to government bodies and the recording criteria is set nationally. However, the systems used for recording these figures are not generic, nor are the procedures used locally in capturing the crime 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 18/04/2024)