Domestic abuse by police officers & staff 211/2024
FOI Reference: 211/2024
Request:
Domestic abuse perpetrated by police officers and police staff from January 2020 to January 2024
I would appreciate it if you could supply the following information in relation to police officers and police employed staff.
For questions 1-4, please provide answers by calendar year using numbers not percentages.
- How many reports of domestic abuse have been logged against serving police officers and police staff between January 2020 and January 2024?
- How many of those reports made between January 2020 -and January 2024 resulted in: a) a criminal trial, b) criminal charges, but no trial; c) a formal misconduct investigation; d) a misconduct hearing; e) a finding of misconduct; f) a finding of gross misconduct; g) a written warning; h) No further Action /No case to answer
- How many police officers or police staff resigned, retired, or left for other reasons, following allegations of domestic abuse related offences from January 2020 to January 2024?
- How many police officers or police staff who have resigned, retired, or left for other reasons following allegations of domestic abuse related offences from January 2020 to January 2024, have been rehired in any capacity by the police service?
- Does your police service have policies and procedures specific to responding to allegations of police perpetrated domestic abuse? a) Yes; b) No
- If you answered yes to question 5, has your force updated policies and procedures specific to responding to allegations of police perpetrated domestic abuse since the Super-Complaint by the Centre for Women’s Justice in March 2020? a) Yes; b) No
- If you answered yes to question 6, please provide details of any updates and a copy of your current policy and operational guidance on PPDA. If you answered no, please still provide your policy and operational guidance on PPDA.
- Police forces are required to report the number of misconduct cases and criminal investigations involving PPDA and their outcomes to the Home Office, does your force currently do this? a) Yes; b) No
- As of June 2022 in the IT system Centurian, VAWG-police perpetrated and VAWG- police injured party and domestic abuse should be available to select as an option. Does your police service currently use these options to capture this data?
- Has your police service made any improvements since 2020 to the way it captures data relating to cases of PPDA? If yes, please explain.
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Response Q1 & Q2
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 7,536 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 department has been advised that the information in respect of Question 1, 2 & 8 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 45,221 records. each record would have to be manually reviewed to ascertain offender details.
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.
45,221 x minutes = 7,536 hours
Time estimate to complete task = 7,536 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.
Response Q3 & Q4
Additional time estimate which is likely to be in excess of 18 hours to comply with this part of your request.
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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 5 – 7, 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 Q5, Q6 & Q7
Yes – information held, information included within the existing Domestic Abuse policy linked below (Details under 'Police Perpetrated Domestic Abuse' section)
Response Q8
Yes - There was no change required on the part of the police force. The Home Office updated their report, which is automated. We continue to run the report annually, which now produces this additional information.
Response Q9
Yes
Response Q10
No changes to the way data is captured, however, in the last 12 months we have moved to a default position with PPDA cases whereby PSD will take ownership of the misconduct AND the criminal arms of the investigation (historically the criminal arm would have been owned by division as off duty conduct). Therefore, more information is captured in respect of PPDA by PSD.
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 06/09/2024)