Force staff and Management statement 947/2023
FOI Reference: 947/2023
Request:
Please could you provide me with information, for all the calendar years from 2010 to 2023, to the following questions
- How many Police Officers are or were stationed in each of the Counties covered by Heddlu Dyfed-Powys?
- How many Police Officers are or were stationed in each of the Counties covered by Heddlu Dyfed-Powys per 100,000 population.
- Per County how many of the officers stationed in each County are or were response officers and how many are neighbourhood officers?
- How many Police Community Support Officers are or were stationed in each of the Counties covered by Heddlu Dyfed-Powys?
- How many public meetings have been held by the police in each 'neighbourhood' in the 'Force Area' over the last 12 months?
- Is every 'neighbourhood' in the 'Force Area' given a policing priority? - if so, what is each neighbourhood's policing priority?
- Could you please provide me with a copy of the latest Force Management Statement?
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 191 hours) to comply with this part of 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 Questions 1-4 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 running 12 reports for each year requested and then extract the relevant data from the 2000 records from within each report.
It has been established that there are a total of 156 reports that cover the period of your request. It has also been established that it would take an average of 35 minutes to run each report and then 3 minutes per record to extract the information in respect of your request (as outlined above). The process outlined results in the below time estimate.
12 reports x 13 years = 156 reports x 35 minutes = 91 hours
2000 records per report x 3 minutes = 100 hours
Time estimate to complete task = 191 hours
Questions 5-7
The relevant departments have advised that a response can be provided within the appropriate time limit, i.e. 18 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.
(This is a response under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and disclosed on 28/05/2024)