Driving offences 976/2024

FOI Reference: 976/2024

Request:

I am looking for information regarding driving offences per region, across the last four years.

I would like to receive the below information in excel format please:

- List of all driving offences committed that resulted in a fine, broken down per year 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024 up to September 2024

- Amount of fines paid per driving offence, broken down per year 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024 up to September 2024.

Clarification Q:

Do you wish to know the number of individuals stopped by an officer and issued with a Conditional offer, the number of individuals stopped by an officer and issued a fine at court or both?

Clarification A:

I have been advised by another constabulary that they cannot provide a breakdown of offences committed specifically resulting in a fine. Therefore, please can you just provide a list of all driving offences committed from 2021-2024 by number?

Clarification Q:

Please can you advise if you wish to know the number of individuals stopped by an officer and issued with a fine at court or a conditional offer consisting of a fine and points?

Also, we  note that you have requested data for all driving offences.  Do you wish to receive data for all offences where an officer has issued a Traffic Offence Report or are you only interested in data for specific offences?

Clarification A:

I am just looking for a list of all driving offences committed from 2021 to September 2024 and the number of offences committed per year.

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 133.8 hours) to comply with this part of your request. The regulations can be located @ https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2004/3244

The Freedom of Information department has been advised that some of the information in respect of your request is not held in an easily retrievable format, due to a change in computer systems. In light of this and in order to accurately obtain the information relative to your request for the time frame 12/05/2023 – 30/09/2024 would involve Dyfed Powys Police accessing and reviewing all traffic offences, each record would have to be manually reviewed to ascertain whether the cases were sent to court or how many people were offered a conditional order.

It has been established that there are a total of 2008 records that cover the period of 12/05/2023 – 30/09/2024 that would need manually reviewing.  It has also been established that it would take a minimum of 4 minutes to review and obtain the information for a single record in respect of your request (as outlined above).  The process outlined results in the below time estimate.

2008 files x 4 minutes = 133.8 hours

Time estimate to complete task = 133.8 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 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.

2021 = 7884 offences

2022 = 8420 offences

Up to 12.05.2023 = 3021 offences

Please see attached excel document with the lists of all traffic offences where a conditional offer was offered, or the case was referred to court.

PLEASE NOTE that this information only includes traffic offences where an officer has stopped an individual and issued them with a Traffic Offence Report.  These figures do not include individuals that have been caught committing an offence via a mobile speed van, fixed camera or footage that may have been sent in via the Op Snap website.                                               

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.

Furthermore, it should also be noted that Police forces in the United Kingdom are routinely required to provide crime statistics to government bodies and the recording criteria is set nationally. However, the systems used for recording these figures are not generic, nor are the procedures used locally in capturing the crime data. It should be noted that for these reasons this force's response to your questions should not be used for comparison purposes with any other response you may receive.

(This is a response under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and disclosed on 08/11/2024)