Stalking protection orders 255/2024
FOI Reference: 255/2024
Request:
The questions refer to the Stalking Protection Act 2019.
Please can you answer the following questions per calendar year starting from 01/01/2019:
1. How many Stalking Prevention Orders were issued?
a. I would appreciate if per year, you could group the SPOs issued by the age groups <18, 18-64, and >64.
i. If this is not possible, please provide the data in whichever age categories are available.
2. How many arrests were made under suspicion of stalking?
3. How many breaches of Stalking Prevention Orders were recorded?
4. How many reports of stalking were recorded?
Clarification Q:
In respect of Q4, what is meant by “reports” are you referring to 101/999 calls received?
Clarification A:
Yes, 101/999 calls, and however else a member of the public may raise a concern about being stalked with the police.
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 question 4 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 47231 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 some of the information in respect of question 4 of your request is not held in an easily retrievable format. In light of this and in order to accurately obtain the information relative to your request for the time frame stipulated it would involve Dyfed Powys Police accessing and reviewing of all incidents to identify whether it involved a report of stalking as there are no relevant filters.
It has been established that there are a total of 566771 incidents that cover the period of 2019-2023. It has also been established that it would take a minimum of 5 minutes to review and obtain the information for a single incident in respect of your request (as outlined above). The process outlined results in the below time estimate.
2019 – 8692
2020 – 130,045
2021 – 136,328
2022 – 138,304
2023 – 153,402
= 566771 incidents x 5 minutes per record = 47231 hours
Time estimate to complete task = 47231 hours
Please note: A response to questions 1-3 of your request were retrievable within the 18 hours’ time limit and have been outlined at the end of the document as a gesture of goodwill and outside of the FOI act.
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.
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 -31 of your request which have 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.
1:
|
Year
|
Interim Stalking Protection Orders Granted |
Stalking Protection Orders Granted |
Age Group |
|
2019 |
Nil |
Nil |
N/A |
|
2020 |
1 |
Nil |
64 & over |
|
2021 |
Nil |
2 |
18 - 64 |
|
2022 |
2 |
5 |
18 - 64 |
|
2023 |
Nil |
1 |
18 - 64 |
|
2024 |
Nil |
Nil |
N/A |
2:
|
Year |
Number of arrests |
|
2019 |
83 |
|
2020 |
235 |
|
2021 |
224 |
|
2022 |
285 |
|
2023 |
254 |
3: 0
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.
(This is a response under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and disclosed on 22/04/2024)