Missing persons 792/2024

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FOI Reference: 792/2024

Request 1:

Please release the following information relating to people missing in your force area in the following time period:

1 January 2023 to 31 December 2023

How many individual children were reported missing to your force?
How many individual adults were reported missing to your force?
How many total missing incidents were reported to your force related to children going missing?
How many total missing incidents were reported to your force related to adults going missing?
How many missing incidents resulted in a fatality? Please provide the numbers for children and adults separately
Please could you share the causes of death in those fatal cases

Request 2:

Please release the following information relating to people missing in your force area in the following time period:

1 January 2024 to 31 May 2024

How many individual children were reported missing to your force?
How many individual adults were reported missing to your force?
How many total missing incidents were reported to your force related to children going missing?
How many total missing incidents were reported to your force related to adults going missing?
How many missing incidents resulted in a fatality? Please provide the numbers for children and adults separately
Please could you share the causes of death in those fatal cases

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 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 286 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 relation to questions 5 and 6 of Request 1 and 2 are not held in an easily retrievable format.

Request 1 Question 5 & 6:

In order to establish how many missing incidents resulted in a fatality and the causes of death in those fatal cases, an individual interrogation of each of the 2,466 missing person records created between 1 January and 31 December 2023 would be required.

It has been estimated that it would take a minimum of 5 minutes to review each record, the time estimate is broken down below:

1 Jan – 31 Dec 23 = 2,466 missing person records x 5 minutes per record = 205 hours

Total time to complete task = 205 hours

Request 2 Question 5 & 6:

In order to establish how may missing incidents resulted in a fatality and the causes of death in those fatal cases, an individual interrogation of each of the 970 missing person records created between 1 January and 31 May 24 would be required.

It has been estimated that it would take a minimum of 5 minutes to review each record, the time estimate is broken down below:

1 Jan – 31 May 24 = 970 missing person records x 5 minutes per record = 81 hours

Total time to complete task = 81 hours

Total time to complete both tasks = (205 hours and 81 hours = 286 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, 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.

Although excess cost removed the force’s obligations under the Freedom of Information Act, as a gesture of goodwill, I have supplied information, relative to your request, retrieved or available before it was realised that the fees limit would be exceeded. 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.

Goodwill Responses Request 1 Question 1: