Drink and drug driving 32/2026

FOI Reference: 32/2026

Request:

This request concerns road offences recorded by your force, with a particular focus on drink and drug driving offences.

Please provide the following:

Part one

• Total number of road offences recorded by your force in the past ten calendar years.
  • Please supply data in a month-year format if possible.
  • Of the total, please provide the number of recorded offences for drug driving;
  • Of the total, please provide the number of recorded offences for drink driving;

Part two

• Of the recorded offences for drug driving by your force in 2025, please provide the following breakdowns:
  • Individual age of the driver (ages from 17 onwards)
  • Gender of the driver
• Of the recorded offences for drink driving by your force in 2025, please provide the following breakdowns:
  • Individual age of the driver (ages from 17 onwards)
  • Gender of the driver

Part three

• Please supply the locations of all the drug driving offences recorded by your force in 2025
  • Please supply the latitude and longitude of the recorded crime

• Please supply the locations of all the drink driving offences recorded by your force in 2025
  • Please supply the latitude and longitude of the recorded crime

Part four

• Can you also provide a redacted copy of drink driving offences recorded by your force in November 2025.
• Can you also provide a redacted copy of drug driving offences recorded by your force in November 2025.

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 22.83 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 some of the information in respect of your request is not held in an easily retrievable format as there are a number of records that come under the offence of driving influence alcohol/drugs . In light of this and in order to accurately obtain the information relative to this request for the time frame covering 12/05/23 – 31/12/25 would involve Dyfed Powys Police accessing and reviewing all driving influence alcohol/drugs records to ascertain if the record relates to either a drink or drug driving related offence. It has been established that there are a total of 685 records that cover the timeframe referred to above.  It has also been established that it would take a minimum of 2 minutes to review and obtain the information for a single record in respect of your request (as outlined above).  The process outlined results in the below time estimate.

12/05/23 – 31/12/25 = 685 records at a minimum of 2 minutes per record = 22.83 hours

Time estimate to complete and task and request = 22.83 hours

Please note: Any data prior to 12/05/23 would come under the offence of drinkdrive_inc where similar to the above time estimate there is no separation of offences. Please see the end of the document for information relating to part 1, 2 of your request which has been provided as a gesture of goodwill and outside of the FOI Act. Please also note that a response to part 2 for gender, part 3 and 4 of your request can be provided within the 18 hour time limit.

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.

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 part 1 & 2 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.

Part 1:

Part 2:

(This is a response under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and disclosed on 10/02/2026)