Communications with Teledyne 408/2025

FOI Reference: 408/25

Request:

Please could you send me correspondence, including letters, emails, phone calls, text and WhatsApp messages and any records/minutes of meetings between Dyfed Powys police and anyone working or representing Teledyne between 1 November 2022 and 30 September 2023 inclusive?

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(2) exemption the Cost of Compliance exceeds the Appropriate Limit applies to it.

Section 12 (2) – The cost of compliance exceeds the Appropriate Limit

Section 12(2) 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 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 relation to your request is not held in an easily retrievable format. This is due to the fact that the Dyfed-Powys Police IT Department are unable to locate and retrieve this information. Therefore, every police officer, police community support officer and member of staff who were employed in the timeframe specified would need to be contacted to ascertain if they have any information that is relevant to your request. There will be officers/staff that have since retired and no longer have Dyfed-Powys Police email accounts in which to search. There are approximately 2,055 personnel that would need to be contacted.  

I have carried out a search of my computer for Teledyne (I do not have any information on the names of people who work or represent Teledyne), and it took me 5 minutes to identify that I do not hold any information relevant to your request. Therefore, applying the same timeframe for any of the personnel of Dyfed-Powys Police that I could locate, would also need to carry out the same process. and including searching for the data requested, it would take approximately 5 minutes per individual staff member to search their records (if they have access) and provide a response.

The relevant time estimate is detailed below:

1 Nov 2022 – 30 Sep 2023 – Approximately 2,055 personnel x 5 minutes per individual search = 171 hours.

This Time Estimate does not include the time it would take to obtain the email addresses of all the people who no longer work for Dyfed-Powys Police, which would add further time to retrieve the information requested.

In accordance 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 me.

Please also be advised that should the request be refined, it does not remove the Force’s right to cite exemptions if relevant.                                             

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.

(This is a response under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and disclosed on 16/04/2025)