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FOI Reference: 867/2024
Request:
The request relates to the time period June 2021 until June 2024.
How many people were arrested for having possession of a controlled drug (without intent to supply), including:
Class A - Powder Cocaine; Amphetamine
Class B - Cannabis and cannabis resin / Cannabinol / Cannabinol derivatives
Please categorise as follows:
People Proceeded Against for the Home Office Classification Code above broken down by Ethnic Appearance.
If the cost for this research is deemed too high, please reduce the time period to June 2022 until June 2024.
Ammended request received:
I would like to make a correction to the request:
I am looking for the number of people proceeded against for having possession of the three controlled drugs listed in the email.
I am not looking for the number of people arrested.
I am also looking for a breakdown of the statistics based on ethnic appearance.
Further ammended request received:
There is one more clarification/thing I need to add to the request.
Please can you break it down the figures by proceedings type.
As a reference, please see the table below - it is very similar to what I am looking for.
The only difference between what I need and the table below, is the time period and the drugs involved.
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I can confirm that Dyfed-Powys Police does hold the information requested, as outlined below.
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 531 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 the information in respect of your request for possession of drug offences between Jun ‘21 to 12th May ’23, 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 accessing and manually reviewing 3184 records to identify those related to the requested drugs, as there is no filter on the old system.
It has also been established that it would take a minimum of 10 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.
3184 x 10 minutes = 531 hours
Time estimate to complete task = 531 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, for offences between June ‘23 to June ‘24, 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.
Note that in the request, it states the applicant is not seeking the arrests and, therefore, the volume of possession of controlled drugs have been provided.
It also should be noted that we do not use some of the ‘proceeding’ types requested, when recording crime outcomes. Therefore, only possession of controlled drugs that were finalised with the outcomes below:-
Outcome |
Count of Outcome |
1: Charged |
79 |
1: Summonsed/postal requisition |
105 |
1A: Alternate offence charged |
1 |
2: Youth caution |
9 |
2: Youth conditional caution |
2 |
3: Adult caution |
4 |
3: Adult conditional caution |
31 |
3A: Alternate offence adult caution |
1 |
8: Community resolution |
986 |
8: Youth restorative disposal |
27 |
Grand Total |
1245 |
Ethnicity |
Count of Outcome |
A1. Asian Indian inc Asian British |
1 |
A2. Asian Pakistani inc Asian British |
2 |
A3. Asian Bangladeshi inc Asian British |
1 |
B1. Black Caribbean inc Black British |
4 |
B2. Black African inc Black British |
1 |
B9. Any other Black background |
1 |
M1. Mixed White & Black Caribbean |
1 |
M2. Mixed White & Black African |
2 |
M3. Mixed White & Asian |
1 |
M9. Any other mixed |
4 |
NS. Not stated |
62 |
NS. Not stated |
1 |
NS. Not stated |
1 |
O9. Any other |
4 |
W1. White British |
955 |
W1. White British |
4 |
W1. White British |
19 |
W1. White British |
1 |
W2. White Irish |
2 |
W3. White Gypsy or Irish Traveller |
2 |
W9. Any other white background |
11 |
W9. Any other white background |
1 |
(blank) |
164 |
Grand Total |
1245 |
It should be noted that owing to the systems adopted by Dyfed-Powys Police in relation to the recording of such matters the information provided may or may not be accurate. 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 13/11/2024)