Professional cleaning 497/2025

FOI Reference: 497/2025

Request:

1) Does your force have an established policy or procedure regarding arranging professional cleaning of a property following a forensic investigation (e.g., after fingerprint dusting, bodily fluid collection, or other invasive evidence-gathering activities)?

If yes, please provide a copy of the current policy or procedure.

2) For each of the past six calendar years (2020-2025), please provide:

The number of cases where professional cleaning was arranged by the force following the investigation.

The types of location (eg residential property) for which trauma cleaning was arranged

The types of incidents where trauma cleaning was arranged (eg homicide, suicide)

3) Total costs for the trauma cleaning jobs

4) Has your force received any formal complaints from victims or property owners regarding the condition of their property after a forensic investigation in the same period? If so, please provide:

The number of complaints per year.

A summary of the nature of complaints (if available).

5) Which companies or contractors has your force used to carry out professional cleaning services following forensic investigations in the past five years?

6) In cases where your force did not arrange professional cleaning, is there a policy or guidance that leaves responsibility for cleaning to the victim or property owner? Please provide details or a copy of this guidance if it exists.

7) Has your force encountered situations in the past five years where professional cleaning should have been arranged but was not? If so, please provide a summary of any internal reviews, findings, or actions taken as a result.

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 541.67 hours) to comply with your request. The regulations can be located at https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2004/3244

The Freedom of Information department has been advised that the information in respect of question 4 of your request is not held in an easily retrievable format as we do not hold information at the level that has been requested. 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 complaints logged with our Professional Standards Department (PSD) over the time frame specified to ascertain if any complaints have been received in respect of question 4 of your request. It has been established that for the period as specified within the request (i.e. 2020 – May 2025)  on average there are approximately 1200 complaints per  year that would require researching. It has been estimated that it would take a minimum of 5 minutes to research a complaint for relevance to question 4 of your request as outlined above, resulting in the following broken down time estimate.

2020 = on average 1200 complaints at 5 mins per complaint = 100 hours

2021 = on average 1200 complaints at 5 mins per complaint = 100 hours

2022 = on average 1200 complaints at 5 mins per complaint = 100 hours

2023 = on average 1200 complaints at 5 mins per complaint = 100 hours

2024 = on average 1200 complaints at 5 mins per complaint = 100 hours

2025 (Jan to May) = on average 500 complaints at 5 mins per complaint = 41.67 hours

Total of 541.67 hours to complete task and request

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, however with due regard to the time estimate provided above it is unlikely that refining your request will fall under the 18 hours as the same method and format will have to be undertaken. 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 Force’s right to cite exemptions if relevant.

Please note: In respect of the remaining questions of your request, a response to questions 1 and 6 can be provided within the 18 hour time limit. Some information can be provided within the 18 hour limit for questions 2,3&5 however at this moment in time we’re unable to confirm if we could provide a full response for questions 2,3&5 within the 18 hour time frame. As this request has now exceeded the 18 hour time limit this additional scoping exercise/work has not been undertaken.  In respect of question 7 we are  unable to confirm if a response to this question can be provided within the 18 hour time limit at this moment in time as the request has already exceeded the 18 hour limit this question has not been progressed and therefore the scoping exercise/work has not been undertaken.                                  

(This is a response under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and disclosed on 03/06/2025)