Missing persons 397/2024
FOI Reference: 397/2024
Request:
1) The number of people recorded as missing by the force in each of the years 2021/22, 2022/23 and 2023/24.
2) For each year, please could you provide a breakdown of the ages, gender and ethnicity of missing people.
3) For each year, please could you provide a breakdown of how many people had previously been recorded as missing/were repeat mispers.
4) For each year, how many missing people investigations took place and how many were closed.
5) For each year, please could you provide an estimation of the cost to the force of missing persons investigations.
6) For each year, how many hours of police time were spent on missing persons investigations.
7) What is the most the force has spent in estimated costs on an individual missing person investigation.
8) What is the longest running individual investigation into a missing person carried out by the force.
9) What is the average length of a missing persons investigation.
10) How many outstanding missing persons investigations is the force dealing with.
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 some 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 119 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 Unit has been advised that the information requested in relation to question 3, 6 and 9 is not held in an easily retrievable format and would exceed the appropriate time limit, i.e. 18 hours, to retrieve. This is due to the fact that every record would need to be looked into separately as the system doesn’t automatically allow for searches to retrieve the details requested.
It has been estimated that to individually interrogate each report would take approximately 1 minute per person. It has been established that there are a total of 7,143 missing persons that would require interrogation. The relevant time estimate is detailed below:
7, 143 missing person records x 1 minute = 119 hours
Therefore, total time estimate to complete the request = 119 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.
Although excess cost removed the force’s obligations under the Freedom of Information Act, as a gesture of goodwill, I have supplied information, relative to your request, retrieved or available before it was realised that the fees limit would be exceeded. 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.
Response Question 1:
|
Number of Missing persons in each year |
|
|
2021-2022 |
2248 |
|
2022-2023 |
2381 |
|
2023-2024 |
2514 |
Response Question 2:
|
Ages |
||||||||
|
|
0-17 years |
18-29 years |
30-39 years |
40-49 years |
50-59 years |
60-69 years |
70-79 years |
80+ years |
|
2021- 2022 |
1097 |
484 |
248 |
156 |
117 |
61 |
52 |
33 |
|
2022- 2023 |
1281 |
385 |
268 |
189 |
109 |
56 |
53 |
40 |
|
2023- 2024 |
1599 |
351 |
219 |
116 |
100 |
48 |
42 |
39 |
|
Gender |
||||
|
|
Male |
Female |
Transgender |
Unknown/ Not recorded |
|
2021-2022 |
1293 |
931 |
13 |
11 |
|
2022-2023 |
1372 |
990 |
11 |
8 |
|
2023-2024 |
1241 |
1258 |
9 |
6 |
|
Ethnicity |
|||||||
|
|
White North European |
White South European |
Black |
Asian |
Chinese, Japanese or South East Asian |
Middle Eastern |
Unknown /not recorded |
|
2021- 2022 |
1087 |
10 |
31 |
5 |
2 |
0 |
1113 |
|
2022- 2023 |
1220 |
25 |
18 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
1115 |
|
2023- 2024 |
1142 |
6 |
22 |
5 |
1 |
6 |
1032 |
Response Question 4:
|
Missing person investigations closed |
|
|
2021-2022 |
2198 |
|
2022-2023 |
2360 |
|
2023-2024 |
2487 |
Response Question 5, 7 & 8:
I can confirm there is no information held by Dyfed-Powys Police.
Response Question 10:
2 Open missing person investigations (as at 19/04/24).
(This is a response under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and disclosed on the 10th May 2024)