WhatDoTheyKnow requests 1047/2025

FOI Reference: 1047/2025

Request:

Description of information sought:

All electronic and written correspondence (including copies of any attachments eg to emails) from and to the force regarding requests for so-called takedowns (https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/help/ico_officers), ie requests to remove part or all of a FOI/EIR request or response, from the WhatDoTheyKnow website.

As well as correspondence on any workspace chat software such as the chat function on Microsoft Teams, please include all correspondence including contacts representing the following organisations:

1. WhatDoTheyKnow or mySociety
2. NPCC Central Referral Unit or National Police Freedom of Information and Data Protection Unit
3. Information Commissioner's Office

Clarification sought:

• Please can you advise what time frame you require the data for
• For points 1-3 is that specifically relating to chat requests to remove FOI requests/responses from those organisations or are you referring to any chat correspondence with those organisations?

Clarification received:

Can you please provide the correspondence from the start of the calendar year 2015 to date?

For points 1-3, I wanted to ask for correspondence with the named organisations related to “take down” requests to Whatdotheyknow.com only.

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.

I can confirm that the cost of determining whether any information relative to this request is or isn’t held is above the amount to which we are legally required to respond therefore we are withholding the whole of the requested information since we consider that the Section 12 (2) exemption the Cost of Compliance exceeds the Appropriate Limit applies to it.

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. The following exemption has been applied to the whole of the information you have requested:

Section 12(2) – The cost of compliance exceeds the Appropriate Limit

Section 12(2) states: “…Subsection (1) does not exempt the public authority from its obligation to comply with paragraph (a) of section 1(1) unless the estimated cost of complying with that paragraph alone would exceed the appropriate limit.”

The cost of determining what information is held, if any, relevant to 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 140.53 hours) to comply with 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 your request is not held in an easily retrievable format. Therefore, in order to establish what information, if any, is held in relation to your request would require manually reviewing all FOI request files held for the period of the request to ascertain if there is any correspondence in that request file that is relevant to your request i.e. correspondence with the organisations listed to remove/take down that request. Please note, there is no information held prior to 2022. It has been established that for the period covering 2022 – 2025 (10/11/25) there are a total 4,216 request files that would require reviewing. It has been estimated that it would take a minimum of 2 minutes to research a single request file for relevance to your request as outlined above, resulting in the following broken time estimate.

2022 = 711 request files at 2 minutes per incident = 23.70 hours

2023 = 1188 request files at 2 minutes per incident = 39.60 hours

2024 = 1215 request files at 2 minutes per incident = 40.50 hours

2025* = 1102 request files at 2 minutes per incident = 36.73 hours

(*up to 10/11/25)

Total of 140.53 hours to complete task

In accordance 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, however with due regard to the time estimate provided above it is unlikely that refining your request will fall under the 18 hours as the same method and format will have to be undertaken. 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 Force’s right to cite exemptions if relevant.                                    

(This is a response under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and disclosed on 10/11/2025)