Suicides of persons under investigation 153/24
FOI Reference: 153.24
Request:
1. Please state how many people commit suicide whilst either being released under investigation or on police bail for allegations of sexual assault and/or rape.
2. Please state how many deaths have been reported by your force to a Coroner where the deceased had:-
a) been under investigation by your force; and
b) the offence was one of rape and/or sexual assault.
3. Please state how many cases have been reported to the Independent Office for Police Conduct as a Death or Serious Injury matter by your force where:-
a) a person has died; and
b) had been under investigation for an offence of either rape and/or sexual assault.’
Please provide us with the information we have requested for the last 5 calendar years.
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 957 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. Therefore, in order to establish what information, if any, is held in relation to the number of people who have committed suicide following release under investigation, or on police bail, for a sexual assault or rape. In respect of Question 2, all unnatural deaths are referred to the relevant Coroner, however determining the ‘status’ of the referrals would fall within the scope of this time estimate.
It has been established that for the period as specified within the request (i.e. 2019 – 2023 there are a total of 5,741 that would require researching.
It has been estimated that it would take a minimum of 957 minutes to research a single incident for relevance to Questions1 & 2 your request as outlined above, resulting in the following broken down time estimate.
2019 – 1106 x 10 mins = 184 hours
2020 – 1184 x 10 mins = 197 hours
2021 – 1127 x 10 mins = 188 hours
2022 – 1192 x 10 mins = 199 hours
2023 – 1132 x 10 mins = 189 hours
Total time estimate to complete whole request = 957 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.
Goodwill:
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 the following information, which I trust you will find helpful. It does not affect our legal right to rely on the fees regulations for the remainder of your request.
Question 3 – IPOC referrals following Death or Serious Injury.
|
Reports to IOPC following Death or Serious Injury |
||
|
Year |
(A) |
(B) |
|
2019 |
22 |
0 |
|
2020 |
14 |
0 |
|
2021 |
18 |
1 |
|
2022 |
27 |
2 |
|
2023 |
23 |
0 |
Key: Columns (A) and (B) relate to the following information,
(A) – Total number of referrals.
(B) – The person had been under investigation for an offence of either rape and/or sexual assault.
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.
Police Forces in the United Kingdom are routinely required to provide crime statistics to government bodies and the recoding criteria is set nationally. However, the systems used for recording these figures are not generic, nor are the procedures used locally in capturing the 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 02/04/24)