Controlling or coercive behaviour 1093/2025

FOI Reference: 1093/2025

Request:

Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, I would like to request the following information held by Dyfed-Powys Police:

1. The number of recorded investigations for controlling or coercive behaviour (under section 76 of the Serious Crime Act 2015) in each of the past five calendar years (2020–2024), broken down by the recorded sex of the suspect (male / female / not recorded).
2. The number of recorded harassment and stalking offences (including offences under the Protection from Harassment Act 1997) in the same period, also broken down by the recorded sex of the suspect.
3. For each of the categories above, please include the number of cases that:

Resulted in a charge or summons,

Were referred to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS),

Were discontinued or resulted in no further action.

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 68.87 hours) to comply with this part of 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 3 i.e. were referred to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) 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 reviewing all controlling or coercive behaviour, harassment, and stalking offence records that have resulted in a charge or summons to identify if that it was referred to CPS. It has been established that there are a total of 1033 offence records that cover the period of your request.  It has also been established that it would take a minimum of 4 minutes to review and obtain the information for a single offence record in respect of your request (as outlined above).  The process outlined results in the below time estimate.

2020 - 2024 = 1033 offence records at a minimum of 4 minutes per record = 68.87 hours

Time estimate to complete task and whole of the request = 68.87 hours

Please note: A response to questions 1, 2 and 3 in part i.e. resulted in a charge or summons,

were discontinued or resulted in no further action has been provided at the end of this document as a gesture of goodwill and outside of the FOI Act.

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. For example if you were to reduce the time frame or specific offences then it may be possible to reduce the number of hours it would take to answer this request to under the 18 hour threshold. If you require further help in this matter then please do not 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.

Although excess cost removes the forces obligations under the Freedom of Information Act to provide any further information, as a gesture of goodwill, I have provided information, relative to questions 1, 2 and 3 (in part) of your request which has been easily retrievable and outlined below. I trust this is helpful, but it does not affect our legal right to rely on the fees regulations for the remainder of your request.

Question 1 and 3:

Controlling or coercive behaviour (under section 76 of the Serious Crime Act 2015)

Question 2 and 3

Harassment and stalking offences (including offences under the Protection from Harassment Act 1997)

(This is a response under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and disclosed on 17/11/2025)