Exposure offences recorded 91/2026

FOI Reference: 91/2026

Request

I am writing under the Freedom of Information act to request data you have recorded on exposure offences/investigation.

Specifically, I request the following information. Please use the table templates.

1) How many new exposure investigations were opened, how many exposure investigations were finalised, how many of the finalised investigations had a named investigating officer allocated, and how many were linked to an attending officer,  in each calendar year from 2019 to 2025? I specifically mean offence title of exposure, rather than the wider offence category of exposure and voyeurism.

2) How many of the exposure investigations which were finalised each year were closed within a day of being opened? How many were finalised within a week of being opened? For simplicity please base this on dates rather than hours. i.e. opened on 1^st of month and closed by the 2^nd (date + 1) or opened on 1^st and closed by the 8^th (date+7) for example.

3) Of the exposure investigations finalised each year, please break down by offence outcome per year (outcome 1-22 or other/na), where for example type 1 includes 1A/alternative offence etc.

Amended request

1) How many new exposure investigations were opened, how many exposure investigations were finalised, how many of the finalised investigations had a named investigating officer allocated, and how many were deployed to at any point, in each calendar year from 2019 to 2025? I specifically mean offence title of exposure, rather than the wider offence category of exposure and voyeurism.

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 71 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 427 records, due to the fact that exposure offences on the old system(Pre May 2023) are recorded under the “Exposure & Voyeurism” offence code, however, we would have to manually trawl each offence to identify those relating specifically to exposure and not voyeurism. See volumes below -

It has also been established that it would take a minimum of 10 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:-

427 records x 10 minutes per record = 71 hours

Time estimate to complete task = 71 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.

Please note:-

The above first two columns could be answered for the new recording system dates (May-23 onwards) as exposure is recorded as a its own offence. However, we would have to do a further manual trawl of all exposure offences between 13^th May 2023 to 31^st Dec 2025 for the last two columns, which would require an additional time estimate.

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 02/02/2026)