Police suicides 694/2025

FOI Reference: 694/2025

Request

1 - The number of Police officers and staff from your organisation that have died by suicide or suspected suicide (where coroner reviews have not been completed yet) each year from 2010 to 2025.

2 - Of those, how many died whilst on duty each year from 2010 to 2025.

3 - How many of those who died by suicide or suspected suicide from your organisation were under Professional Standards Department/Directorate of Professional Standards or IOPC investigation each year from 2010 to 2025.

4 - The number of suicides or attempted suicides from your organisation attend where the subject was a Police Officer or staff member each year from 2010 to 2025.

5 - The number of suicide attempts by Police officers or Police staff from your organisation each year from 2010 to 2025.

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 1,865 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 3 ,4 & 5 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 manually reviewing 11,190 records, due to the fact that we do not currently have the information available for any suicides or attempted suicides between 2010 and 2016.  We cannot keyword search on our Police system to narrow down the search for the information requested. These types of incidents would be recorded as either suicidal or sudden death on 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. 

The process outlined results in the below time estimate

In 2016 there were 779 incidents in these categories.

In 2018 there were 1353 incidents in these categories.

In 2019 there were 1393 incidents in these categories.

In 2020 there were 1512 incidents in these categories..

In 2021 there were 1480 incidents in these categories.

In 2022 there were 1435 incidents in these categories.

In 2023 there were 1405 incidents in these categories.

In 2024 there were 1195 incidents in these categories.

Total incidents = 11,190

11,190 incidents x 10 minutes per record = 1,865 hours

Time estimate to complete task = 1,865 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.

Please note:

In response to Q1 & Q2

I can confirm that Dyfed-Powys Police does not hold the information requested, due to the fact that cause of death is recorded by the coroner.

However, in order to assist, national data on recorded suicides are broken down by profession and published by the Office of National Statistics (ONS) using the below link:

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths

(This is a response under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and disclosed on 23/07/2025)