Illegal abortion 895/2024
FOI Reference: 895/2024
Request:
For each of the calendar years 2015 to 2020, and for 2021 to date, please tell me:
1. The number of recorded crimes of procuring illegal abortion, recorded by the force.
2. The number of recorded crimes resulting in -
a) the suspect being arrested and b) the suspect being charged.
3. In addition, for each of the crimes recorded by police, please provide an anonymised copy of the crime report, to include the stage of pregnancy that the abortion was incurred. This could detail allegations relating to abortions involving drugs ordered online, suspicious stillbirths or suspected abortions conducted after the legal limit, for instance.
If this is too onerous, please focus on the cases where the investigation resulted in an arrest or charge.
4. The number of recorded incidents where procuring an illegal abortion is suspected, whether this resulted in a recorded crime or not.
Should provision of 4. exceed the time limits for an FOIA, then please disregard that question.
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.
I can confirm that the cost of determining whether any information relative to question 4 of this request is or isn’t held is above the amount to which we are legally required to respond therefore we are withholding the whole of the requested information since we consider that the Section 12 (2) exemption the Cost of Compliance exceeds the Appropriate Limit applies to it.
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. The following exemption has been applied to the whole of the information you have requested:
Section 12(2) – The cost of compliance exceeds the Appropriate Limit
Section 12(2) states: “…Subsection (1) does not exempt the public authority from its obligation to comply with paragraph (a) of section 1(1) unless the estimated cost of complying with that paragraph alone would exceed the appropriate limit.”
The cost of determining what information is held, if any, relevant to question 4 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 56492 hours) to comply with 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. Therefore, in order to establish what information, if any, is held in relation to question 4 of the request would require the individual interrogation of all incidents over the time frame specified to identify those where procuring an illegal abortion is suspected. Please also note that incidents prior to 2020 cannot be retrieved.
It has been established that there are a total of 677901 incidents that cover the period of your request. It has also been established that it would take a minimum of 5 minutes to review and obtain the information for a incident in respect of your request (as outlined above). The process outlined results in the below time estimate.
2020 – 130,045
2021 – 136,328
2022 – 138,304
2023 – 153,402
2024 to date (09/10/2024) – 119,822
Total: 677,901 incidents x 5 minutes to review each = 56,492 hours
Time estimate to complete task = 56492 hours
Please note: A response to questions 1 & 2 of your request is retrievable within the 18 hours time limit and has been outlined at the end of the document as a gesture of goodwill and outside of the FOI act.
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 questions 1 & 2 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.
Question 1
2015 – 0
2016 – 0
2017 – 0
2018 – 1
2019 – 0
2020 – 0
2021 – 1
2022 – 0
2023 – 0
2024 to date (09/10/2024) – 0
Question 2
0
Question 3
Please be advised that the relevant department has advised that a response can be provided within the appropriate time limit, i.e. 18 hours. However, please note that exemptions will apply to the response if you submit a refined request for this data.
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 09/10/2024)