Unauthorised car meets 905/2024
FOI Reference: 905/2024
Request:
Under FOI rules, please could you provide me with the following information regarding unauthorised car meets.
Split by calendar year from 1 January 2022 to date, please provide the following;
- Number of reports of unauthorised car meets
- Number of times officers have attended unauthorised car meets
- Number of arrests made at unauthorised car meets
- In addition, please can you advise if you have any Section 35 dispersal orders in place to tackle unauthorised car meets? If so how many and when were they first authorised?
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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 52 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 Question 1 - 3 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 accessing and reviewing 314 records, mentioning the key words “car” and “meet/s” from Jan 2022 to date to identify those regarding unauthorised car meets.
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.
2022 - 124
2023 - 115
2024 - 75
Total - 314 records
314 x 10 minutes = 52 hours
Time estimate to complete task = 52 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 question 4 of 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.
Response Q4
There are zero (0) Section 34s authorised for planned car meets currently in place.
(S.34 of the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 is the authorisation power used by police officers of at least the rank of Inspector to allow the issuing of dispersal notices under s.35 of the Act. So the Sec 34 would be in place to tackle ASB etc, then person(s) issued with a S.35 dispersal notice can be instructed to leave an area for up to 48 hours at any time within the authorisation period.)
(This is a response under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and disclosed on 06/11/2024)