Domestic abuse related deaths 251/2025

FOI Reference: 251/2025

Request:

1) The number of deaths of women referred by the force to be considered for domestic homicide reviews/domestic abuse related death reviews between 2019-2024

2) How many of the referrals identified in response to question 1 resulted in the review process being undertaken and how many did not

3) For each death identified in response to question 1, please provide the number of DASH assessments completed by the force in relation to the deceased prior to their death and the risk level identified in each assessment

4) For each death identified in response to question 1, please provide the number of occasions on which the deceased was discussed at the Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conference/High Risk Daily Meeting/Daily Risk Assessment Management Meeting or equivalent meeting prior to their death. 

Clarification sought:

When you state deaths, are you referring to murders/manslaughters?

Clarification received:

My understanding is that cases referred for a domestic homicide review or domestic abuse related death review could include both murders/manslaughters as well as suicides occurring after domestic violence. I am interested in both.

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 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 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. between 19 - 37 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 question 1 of your request (i.e. to ascertain the number of suicides that have taken place for the period covering 01/01/19 – 12/05/23 and then to review them to identify if it’s recorded anywhere if a domestic homicide review took place) is not held in an easily retrievable format. The relevant department have reviewed the request and established that the required data is not currently retrievable through existing data reporting products and an existing script does not exist. Consequently, the steps required to initially understand if the data is available and subsequently complete the required extraction, verification, and analysis, through the writing of a new bespoke script, would exceed 18 hours. A breakdown of the steps required and the estimated time it would take per step is detailed below:

Total of 19 - 37 hours to complete task and request

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: At this moment in time we are unable to confirm if information in respect of question 1 of your request for murders/manslaughter offences for the whole of the time period requested and suicides for the time period of 13/05/23 – 31/12/24 can be retrieved within the 18 hour time limit.  As this request has already exceeded the 18 hour time limit the further scoping exercise/work has not been undertaken.

Please also note: In respect of your request information relating to domestic homicide reviews maybe held by the community safety partnerships in each local authority i.e. Carmarthenshire, Pembrokeshire, Powys and Ceredigion.

(This is a response under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and disclosed on 02/06/2025)