Human trafficking 1068/2024
FOI Reference: 1068/2024
Request:
We are writing under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (“FOIA 2000”) to request information regarding the Dyfed-Powys Police handling of human trafficking cases over the past 5-10 years.
Specifically, we are requesting the following information, broken down by calendar year if possible:
1. Please provide the total number of reports or complaints related to human trafficking received by the Dyfed-Powys Police each year.
a. This data should include all initial reports made either (i) directly by individuals or third-party organisations, (ii) through the National Referral Mechanism and/or (iii) by any other means.
b. When answering this question, please provide copies of any and all documents relating to the recording of victims of trafficking and/or modern slavery referrals.
2. Of the reports received (as per item 1), please specify how many cases resulted in an investigation being formally opened each year.
3. Of the reports received (as per item 1), please provide the number of Achieving Best Evidence (ABE) interviews conducted in relation to these reports each year.
4. Please provide the number of cases, from those investigated (as per item 2), that resulted in prosecutions. Within this data, I would appreciate a breakdown as follows:
a. Number of prosecutions against the same people that were referred to the police force as potential victims of trafficking and/or modern slavery
b. Number of prosecutions against the alleged trafficker(s)
5. Please provide copies of all documents, guidance, and training materials outlining the procedures followed by [the relevant police force] staff when handling potential human trafficking and/or modern slavery referrals, including, but not limited to, the investigation of reported cases of human trafficking and/or modern slavery.
We do not expect you to disclose the identities of any individuals in your disclosure of the reports/documents and records requested.
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.
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.
I can confirm that Dyfed-Powys Police does hold the information you have requested. However, we are withholding the whole of the requested information since we consider that the Section 12(1) exemption the Cost of Compliance exceeds the Appropriate Limit applies to it.
Section 12 (1) – The cost of compliance exceeds the Appropriate Limit
Section 12(1) states: “…Section 1 (1) does not oblige a public authority to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying with the request 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 3063.66 hours) to comply with this part of your request. The regulations can be located @ https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2004/3244
The Freedom of Information department has been advised that the information in respect of Question 3 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 would involve Dyfed Powys Police accessing and reviewing all cases where strategy discussions in relation to children took place, each record would have to be manually reviewed to ascertain whether these cases were exploitation/trafficking related and then checked further to see if an ABE had taken place.
It has been established that there were 18382 cases, dealt with by the Central Referral Unit, that cover the period of your request (please note a National Referral Mechanism would be completed for any victim or potential victim of MDS/Trafficking and that this figure does not include any adult cases as they would not necessarily go through the Central Referral Unit for strategy discussion). It has also been established that it would take a minimum of 10 minutes to review and obtain the information for a single case in respect of your request (as outlined above). The process outlined results in the below time estimate.
18382 x 10 minutes = 3063.66 hours
Time estimate to complete task = 3063.66 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.
Please be advised that regarding Question 1a, it has not currently been confirmed whether this can be answered within 18 hours as clarification would be required (by ‘reports’ are you referring to incidents or crimes). Clarification hasn’t been sought due to the fact that it was identified that Question 3 could not be completed within 18 hours.
Please note: The number of NRM referrals are already available via this public website: National Referral Mechanism statistics - GOV.UK The quarterly data for every Force in relation to referrals can be found in Table 10 of the excel spreadsheet.
Any guidance we direct officers and staff to adhere to in relation to Modern Day Slavery/Trafficking is available online through the College of Policing and Home Office websites.
This is a response under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and disclosed on 09/12/2024.