Domestic abuse and sexual offences 1045/2025

FOI Reference: 1045/2025

Request

1. Please provide the following information for the last available 12 months’ data in relation to:

1. All female victims of domestic abuse
2. All female victims of sexual offences

If you are unable to provide data for all female victims, please provide the data for:

1. All victims of domestic abuse
2. All victims of sexual offences

The information sought is:

2. In what proportion of cases is the victim’s ethnicity recorded on the police electronic system?

3. What is the ethnic breakdown of those victims for whom ethnicity is recorded?

Please state whether the ethnicity recorded is self-assessed or based on police IC codes.

Please additionally provide the following information:

4. Is the recording of a victim’s ethnicity a mandatory field on your force’s electronic system?

5. If so, please can you confirm when this was made a mandatory field.

6. Please can you confirm what steps, if any, you have taken since 1 May 2024 to improve the recording of victims’ race and ethnicity data on your systems, including any technology solutions, training or policy/guidance provided to officers.

 

I can confirm that Dyfed-Powys Police does hold the information requested relating to Questions 1 – 5; however we are exempting part of that information relating to ‘Victim Ethnicity’ for Q3, as we believe that the following exemption is relevant:

Section 40(2) Personal Information

Section 40(2) is a class-based absolute exemption. This means that the legislators when writing the legislation considered that the release of such information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 would cause harm to the public authority or individual concerned. There is therefore no requirement to carry out a HARM Test in respect of such information. There is also no requirement to carry out a Public Interest Test.

Section 40(2) Personal Information:

Section 40(2) applies to third party personal data and is exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 if disclosure, in relation to data subject to law enforcement processing, would breach any of the data protection principles contained within Part 3 - Chapter 2 of the Data Protection Act 2018. Under Section 34 within Chapter 2 “The Controller in relation to personal data is responsible for and must be able to demonstrate, compliance with” Chapter 2. Such information would not be released under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 unless there is a strong public interest. One of the main differences between the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and the Data Protection Act 2018 is that any information released under FOI is released into the public domain, not just the individual requesting the information and disclosure under the Act must be made with that in mind. As such, any release that identifies an individual through releasing their personal data, even third party personal data is exempt.

Personal data is defined under Section 3 of the Data Protection Act 2018 as:

“(2) ‘Personal data’ means any information relating to an identified or identifiable living individual (subject to subsection (14)(c)).

(3) ‘Identifiable living individual’ means a living individual who can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to—

(a) An identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data or an online identifier, or

(b) One or more factors specific to the physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or social identity of the individual.”

All members of the public including those employed by the force have an intrinsic right to privacy and these rights are protected by virtue of the Human Rights Act, the Data Protection Act 2018 and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and a public authority must not interfere with that right. Any release of the information subject to the exemption is likely to compromise those rights.

Data Protection Act 2018

Part 3 – Law Enforcement – Chapter 2 Principles Section 35

The first data protection principle:

“(1) The first data protection principle is that the processing of personal data for any of the law enforcement purposes must be lawful and fair.”

General Data Protection Regulation

Article 5 of the GDPR – ‘Principles relating to processing of personal data’ provides:

“1. ‘Personal data’ shall be

(a) Processed lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner in relation to the data subject (‘lawfulness, fairness and transparency);

(b) Collected for specified, explicit and legitimate purposes and not further processed in a manner that is incompatible with those purposes; further processing for archiving purposes in the public interest…

2. The controller shall be responsible for, and be able to demonstrate compliance with, paragraph 1 (‘accountability’).”

Dyfed-Powys Police would not want to disclose any information that could potentially identify an individual. In this particular case, to release the requested information concerning low numbers of categories of ‘Victim Ethnicity’, could lead to the identification of those individuals.

To release such information would be a direct breach of Data Protection legislation as a consequence I am satisfied that Section 40(2) Personal Information exemption is applicable to the release of the information.

The Section 40 exemption is a class-based exemption. This means that the legislators when writing the legislation considered that the release of such information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 would cause harm to the public authority or individual concerned. There is therefore no requirement to carry out a HARM Test in respect of such information.

Response  Q1

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

October 2024 – September 2025

1. - Female victims of domestic abuse = 4056
2. – Female victims of sexual offences = 1387

Response Q2

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

Female victims of domestic abuse = 6.3% not stated (255 not stated from 4046 crimes)

Female victims of sexual offences = 29.2% not stated (405 not stated from 1387 crimes

Response Q3

I can confirm that Dyfed-Powys Police does hold the information requested; however we are exempting part of that information relating to ‘Victim Ethnicity’, as we believe that the following exemption is relevant:

Victim Ethnicity
Female Victim Domestic Abuse Offences	Female Victim Sexual Offences
Section 40(2) – Personal Information exemption applied X 25	Section 40(2) – Personal Information exemption applied X 20

Ethnic breakdown of female victims of domestic abuse and sexual offences.

Female Victim Domestic Abuse Offences
Victim Self-Defined Ethnicity		Volume
A1. Asian Indian inc Asian British		12
A9. Any other Asian background		13
B2. Black African inc Black British		7
M1. Mixed White & Black Caribbean		15
M9. Any other mixed		6
O9. Any other		17
W1. White British		3615
W2. White Irish		21
W9. Any other white background		70
NS. Not Stated		255
A2. Asian Pakistani inc Asian British A3. Asian Bangladeshi inc Asian British A4. Asian Chinese inc Asian British B1. Black Caribbean inc Black British B9. Any other Black background M2. Mixed White & Black African M3. Mixed White & Asian O2. Arab W3. White Gypsy or Irish Traveller		Section 40(2) applies
Total		4056

Female Victim Sexual Offences
Victim Self-Defined Ethnicity	Volume
B2. Black African inc Black British	7
O9. Any other	18
W1. White British	937
NS. Not Stated	405
A1. Asian Indian inc Asian British A2. Asian Pakistani inc Asian British A9. Any other Asian background B9. Any other Black background M1. Mixed White & Black Caribbean M2. Mixed White & Black African M3. Mixed White & Asian M9. Any other mixed O2. Arab W2. White Irish W9. Any other white background	Section 40(2) applies
Total	1387

Please note:

Above data includes self-defined ethnicity.

Response Q4

Niche system – If a user adds a Person Description it is mandatory to add an Ethnicity and Self-Defined Ethnicity.

Pronto system – Yes, always recorded, even if persons details cannot be obtained. This is the primary recording software for users.

Response Q5

The ethnicity field has been mandatory since at least 2020.

Response Q6

No information held

 

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 06/11/2025)

Os oes angen y wybodaeth yma arnoch yn Gymraeg, cysylltwch â: [email protected] If you require this information in Welsh, please contact: [email protected]