Number of cars stolen 186/24

FOI Reference: 186/2024

Request:

1. The total number of cars stolen in the Dyfed-Powys Police authority in the last year, by postcode, including make and model of vehicle where possible.

2. The total number of car crashes reported in the Dyfed-Powys Police authority in the last year, by postcode, including make and model of all involved vehicles where possible.

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 896 hours) to comply with this part of 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, this is due to the fact that make and model of car is not a searchable category/applicable filter that can used in our current data recording system. 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 car theft crimes and road traffic collision records to ascertain the make and model of the car

It has been established that there are a total of 5,163 RTC records and 218 vehicle theft crime records that cover the period of your request and require individual interrogation.  It has also been established that it would take a minimum of 10 minutes to review and obtain the information for a single crime record in respect of your request (as outlined above).  The process outlined results in the below time estimate.

RTC records = 5,163 x 10 minutes per record = 860.5 hours

Vehicle theft records = 218 x 10 minutes per record = 36.4 hours

Time estimate to complete task = 896.9 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.

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 some of your request which has 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.

Inspector Area	Total (RTC Incidents)
Aberystwyth	361
Ammanford	586
Brecknockshire	396
Cardigan	245
Carmarthen	573
Haverfordwest	361
Headquarters	22
Lampeter	278
Llanelli	663
Milford Haven	195
Montgomeryshire	595
Out of Force Area	144
Pembs South	453
Radnorshire	291

    

Inspector Area	Total Theft of Vehicle Crimes
Aberystwyth	12
Ammanford	28
Brecknockshire	23
Cardigan	8
Carmarthen	21
Haverfordwest	10
Invalid Geography Recorded	1
Lampeter	9
Llanelli	42
Milford Haven	13
Montgomeryshire	21
Pembs South	16
Radnorshire	13
Unrecognised Beat Code	1

Please note, I have provided the above information outside of the FOI Act, the figures have been given by Policing Area, if you were refine your request it should be noted to provide a breakdown by postcode would likely incur another Section 12(1) exemption, as it would take us more than the permitted 18hours, as an individual review of each record would be needed to ascertain the postcode of the incident.

The below websites may be of interest to you if you are not already aware of them.

Police recorded road collisions: 2022 (revised) | GOV.WALES

Police recorded road collisions: interactive dashboard | GOV.WALES

Road traffic statistics - About (dft.gov.uk)

                                                                                               

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 23/02/2024)