Cannabis farms 1091/2025

FOI Reference: 1091/2025

Request

I am writing to make a request for all the information to which I am entitled under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

How many commercial cannabis farms have been identified in your constituency since 2015 including 2025? (Please indicate a cut off date - eg up to and including October 2025) How many commercial cannabis farms raids have there been in your constituency since 2015 including 2025? (Please indicate a cut off date - eg up to and including October 2025)

What was the total estimated street worth of the cannabis seized from commercial cannabis farms in your constituency from 2015 until 2025? (Please indicate a cut off date - eg up to and including October 2025)

What was the total estimated street worth of the cannabis seized from commercial cannabis farms in your constituency from 2015 until 2025?  (Please indicate a cut off date - eg up to and including October 2025)

How many convictions have there been in relation to commercial cannabis farm raids in your constituency from 2015 until 2025?  (Please indicate a cut off date - eg up to and including October 2025)

Could the above three questions be presented in data that is also split up by year, and the previous function of the location (i.e. school, shop etc)  ?

Clarification received

I do not mean legal commercial cannabis farms, I mean the illegal cultivation of cannabis at a venue.

More specific clarification below:

Cannabis farms are premises which have been adapted to such an extent that normal usage would be inhibited. Usually present within the premises are items solely concerned for the production of cannabis, these could be (but not limited to):

• High intensity lighting
   
• Ventilation / extractor fans
   
• Hydroponics systems

Cannabis cultivation refers to the practice and process of producing cannabis flowers via cannabis farms. 

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 72 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 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 432 records.  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.

Volumes below are all `Produce/Cultivation of Controlled Drugs’ Offences with `Cannabis’ mentioned in the crime summary’ for pre-NICHE Data (Old Recording system) (01/01/2018– 11/05/2023) and all `Production of a cannabis plant’ offences for NICHE data (New Recording system) (post 12/05/2023).

432 records x 10 mins per record = 72 hrs

Time estimate to complete task = 72 hours

Please note: The volumes above refer to all cannabis cultivations (at both residential and commercial sites if relevant). To distinguish between the two would require a manual trawl of all mentioned records. We cannot identify whether the warrants were positive or negative.

We cannot retrieve pre-2018 data.

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.

(This is a response under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and disclosed on 18/11/2025)