Revenge porn 666/2024

FOI Reference: 666/2024

Request:

Please could you provide us with the numbers in relation to the following information, for the period 31st January 2023 to 30th January 2024, concerning Disclosing private sexual photographs and films with intent to cause distress under Section 33 of the Criminal Justice and Courts Act (2015) where the victim is aged 18 or older: 

• Reported cases 
• Arrests 
• Outcomes: 
  • No further action (with further detail, if possible) 
  • Charges 
  • Other resolutions 

 

Non-FOI response

Please find attached responses in respect of previous similar request FOI ref 605.2024

You will see that a time estimate response was provided. Although your request requires information for a differing time period, the same methodology would apply and so a time estimate response would also be the result.

 

Further request

Do you have any recommendations for how we could refine our request to fit within the appropriate limit?

 

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 199 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 the request would require the individual interrogation of all records under the categories of malicious communications and other miscellaneous sex offences over the time frame specified to identify if the incident in question related to this crime type. It has been established that for the period as specified within the request there are a total 1196 records that would require researching. It has been estimated that it would take a minimum of 10 minutes to research a single incident for relevance to your request as outlined above, resulting in the following time estimate.

1196 records @ 10 minutes per record = 199 hours

Total of 199 hours to complete task

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.

Section 16 advice and assistance

You may wish to refine and resubmit your request as the relevant department has advised us of the following:

The applicant could rephrase the question to request the volume and outcomes of one, or all three, of the following specific offences provided within the time period 13/05/2023 to date (05/08/2024) which would come under the 18 hours.

088/15A - Sharing intimate photograph or film to cause alarm, distress or humiliation, or for sexual gratification
088/15B - Threaten to share intimate photograph or film
178/05 - Share photograph or film of person in intimate state without consent

Please note: If the applicant still wants the specific offence post 13/05/2023, we would have to conduct a manual review of all offences under each of the three codes which may exceed 18 hours of work depending on the volumes during the requested time period. This is because the requested offence `Disclosing private sexual photographs and films with intent to cause distress’ could be recorded under each of the three codes.

Requesting any data relating to these offences, for any period prior to 13/05/2024, would involve a manual trawl of all offences with the MALCOMMS offence code, which would exceed 18 hours of work as the volumes are too high.

Please also be advised that should the request be refined, it does not remove the Force’s 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 07/08/2024)