Child Sexual Exploitation 437/2025

FOI Reference: 437/25

Request:

a) The number of cases with a 'CSE flag' applied for the calendar years 2020 - 2024.

b) A breakdown by ethnicity of perpetrators for those cases applied a CSE flag.

c) The number of “live” group-based CSE investigations led by your force for the years 2020 - 2024, including those progressing through the criminal justice system. “Group based”, in this context, means those crimes involving two or more offenders. If possible, broken down by the number of individuals in each “group”/gang.

d) The number of safeguarding referrals received 2020 - 2024 for children because of sexual exploitation concerns.

e) The number of Child Abduction Warning Notices (CAWN) issued to adults 2014 - 2025, and a breakdown by ethnicity of those presented with one.

Response a:

I can confirm that Dyfed-Powys Police does hold the information requested, as outlined below.

2020 – 175

2021 – 421

2022 – 396

2023 – 92 (Qlikview) 33 (Niche)

2024 – 55

Please note: 2020 – 2022 data has been extracted from Qlikview. 2023 data has been extracted from both Qlikview and Niche (Niche is the new operating system that records police data, and was implemented in May 2023).

2024 data has been extracted from Niche.

Since the implementation of Niche, the way CSE flags are recorded on investigations has now changed which is why there is a discrepancy in data.

Response b:

I can confirm that there is no information held by Dyfed-Powys Police due to the fact that ethnicity data is not recorded by Dyfed-Powys Police.

Response c:

I can confirm that there is no information held by Dyfed-Powys Police due to the fact that we do not have a “group based” tag that we can add to crimes to identify the information

Response d:

I can confirm that there is no information held by Dyfed-Powys Police due to the fact that we do not have accurate tagging data on our referrals to produce any reliable data for this question.

Response e:

I can confirm that Dyfed-Powys Police does hold some of the information requested, as outlined below.

Please note: Data only held from 2015. Ethnicity data not recorded.                                               

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.

Furthermore, it should also be noted that Police forces in the United Kingdom are routinely required to provide crime statistics to government bodies and the recording criteria is set nationally. However, the systems used for recording these figures are not generic, nor are the procedures used locally in capturing the crime data. 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 08/05/2025)