Spiking 323/2026

FOI Reference: 323/2026

Request:

1) For the following calendar years – 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025 – please provide this information:

• Total number of reported alleged drink spiking offences that were investigated by the police
• Total number of offences that were prosecuted

2) Most recent year

For the calendar year 2025, please provide this information:

• Please state the name of any institutions where there have been more than five reported alleged drink spiking offences, as well as the total number of alleged drink spiking offences at these venues.
• Please provide the breakdown of the type of venue of the alleged drink spiking (ie. pub, bar, restaurant, private residence, university accommodation etc)

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 64.83 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 1 of your request is not held in an easily retrievable format as spiking is not an offence category. In light of this and in order to accurately obtain the information relative to question 1 of your request for the time frame stipulated would involve Dyfed Powys Police accessing and reviewing all offences containing the key words “spike”, “spiked” and/or “spiking” in the crime summary to identify if the offence involved drink spiking. This information would be to be collated before a response to the number of offences that were prosecuted could be ascertained. It has been established that there are a total of 389 offence records that cover the period of your request.  It has also been established that it would take a minimum of 10 minutes to review and obtain the information for a single offence record in respect of question 1 of your request (as outlined above).  The process outlined results in the below time estimate.

Please note: 2017 data is not available due to its poor quality and accuracy and it should also be noted that some records may not be accounted for if spiking was mentioned in the crime log rather than the summary.

2018 = 13 offence records at a minimum of 10 mins per record = 2.17 hours

2019 = 33 offence records at a minimum of 10 mins per record = 5.50 hours

2020 = 26 offence records at a minimum of 10 mins per record = 4.33 hours

2021 = 63 offence records at a minimum of 10 mins per record = 10.50 hours

2022 = 83 offence records at a minimum of 10 mins per record = 13.83 hours

2023 = 56 offence records at a minimum of 10 mins per record = 9.33 hours

2024 = 73 offence records at a minimum of 10 mins per record = 12.17 hours

2025 = 42 offence records at a minimum of 10 mins per record = 7.00 hours

Time estimate to complete task = 64.83 hours

Please note: A response to question 2 of your request can be provided within the 18 hour time limit. Please also be advised that should the request be refined, it does not remove the public authorities right to cite exemptions if relevant.

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.

(This is a response under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and disclosed on 31/03/2026)