Targetted operations for drugs 01/24
FOI Reference: 01/2024
Request:
1. In the period from 1.1.23 to 30.11.23 how many times has your force carried out a targeted operation to see if drugs have been present at a venue?
By this I mean an operation to check if drug residues have been left behind at a building or facility which is not a private residence. Also, if for example you checked for residues at all the toilets at a football stadium on one particular day that would be one operation rather than counting the individual number of toilets in that stadium tested. However, if you tested the toilets at the venue on two different match days that would be two operations.
2. If so please state the (i) the venue where the tests were carried out, (ii) the type of facility within that venue that the tests were carried out and (iii) details of the types of drug that were detected/or were no drugs detected.
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 284 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 relation to the whole request is not easily retrievable, this is due to the fact that there are no “named operations” which relate to your request.
Therefore, in order to ascertain if there is any information relevant to your request, every drug related intel log record created during the timeframe specified would require interrogation to see if there are any relevant details.
It has been established that there are a total of 8,521 intel log records that would require individual interrogation and it has been estimated that it would take an average of 2 minutes to research each individual record. The relevant time estimate is detailed below:
1st January 2023- 31st November 2023= 8,521 x 2 minutes per record = 284 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 me.
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.
(This is a response under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and disclosed on 27/02/2024)