Social media comments & speeding cyclists 1125/2025

FOI Reference: 1125/2025

Request

1) How many times has your force spoken to people, either by visiting their home or workplace or speaking to them elsewhere, after receiving complaints about them that they made comments on social media or in person or in any other format that were offensive but not necessarily a criminal offence?

Please provide the full number of people spoken to about their behaviour broken down for this calendar year (2025) to date, last calendar year (2024) and the year before (2023).

Please provide as much narrative as possible about the nature of the complaint received (were the comments made online or in person or in another form etc. what was the nature of the complaint - ie, what words were allegedly used that formed the alleged bad or offensive behaviour that wasn't necessarily a criminal offence etc. and were they supposedly islamophobic, transphobic, anti-semitic etc.) What was the result in each case that someone was spoken to?

2) Please provide information to the following under the Freedom of Information Act:

Has your force ever captured cyclists breaking the speed limit by speed cameras operated by your force?

If so, please break down the number of times cyclists triggered speed cameras operated by your force because they were cycling above the speed limit. Please break it down for the current calendar year to date (2025) and last year (2024) and the year before that (2023).

For each case, please specify what the speed limit was that was broken by the cyclist - was it a 20mph limit, 30mph, 40mph, 50mph etc.?

Were any cyclists arrested or reprimanded for breaking speed limits and if so please specify.

Response 1:

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 33,040 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 396,483 records, as there are no relevant search filters.

It has also been established that it would take a minimum of 5 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:-

2023 – 139,962 records

2024 – 135,226 records

2025 (up to 16/11/2025) – 121,295 records

Total records = 396,483

396,483 records x 5 minutes =  33,040 hours

Time estimate to complete task = 33,040 hours

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.

Response 2:

I can confirm that Dyfed-Powys Police does not hold the information requested. Please refer to the response below:-

Any data regarding individuals caught speeding by a speed van or fixed camera would be held by the Safety Camera Partnership in Pontypridd. The Safety Camera Partnership can be contacted via the below details.  You can contact them direct or alternatively please let us know if you would like us to transfer your request to the Safety Camera Partnership.

Mid & South Wales

Safety Camera Unit
PO Box 95
Treforest
Pontypridd
CF37 9DH

Tel: 01443 660402
(phone line open between 08:00 to 12:00 Monday to Friday only).

Email: [email protected]

(This is a response under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and disclosed on 19/11/2025)