Cuckooing incidents 69/24

FOI Reference: 69/2024

Request 1 - 3:

I am writing under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to request information in relation to ‘cuckooing’ also known as forced home invasion which is described in Home Office guidance as “a tactic used by criminals, typically drug dealers, to take over the homes of vulnerable individuals, such as care leavers or those with addiction, physical or mental health issues, and use the property as a base for criminal activity. This is a common characteristic of the county lines business model and can occur in a range of settings such as rental and private properties, student accommodation, prisons, and commercial properties”.[1]

Please provide me with the following information:

1. Does your police force have a marker or flag for cuckooing in your crime recording database?
2. How many live cases involving cuckooing is your police force currently responding to or investigating? (as at the date of responding to this request - please provide that date in the response)
3. How many cuckooed properties did your police force visit in the period July to December 2023 inclusive?

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 150 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 question 3 of your request is not held in an easily retrievable format.

Therefore, in order to ascertain if there is any information relevant to your request, every Intelligence log for the categories around drugs, serious organised crime, labour exploitation would require interrogation to identify any reference to cuckooing.

It has been established that there are in excess of 3,000 intelligence logs recorded that would require individual interrogation and it has been estimated that it would take an average of 3 minutes to research each individual record. The relevant time estimate is detailed below:

3,000 intelligence logs x 3 minutes per log = 150 hours

The relevant department has advised that a response can be provided within the appropriate time limit, i.e. 18 hours for questions 1 and 2, however, I have been advised that it is highly likely that further exemptions to the response will be required.

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.

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(This is a response under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and disclosed on 08/03/2024)