Immigration enforcement referrals 95/2026
FOI Reference: 95/2026
Request:
Please provide the following for each of the last three financial years (2021/22, 2022/23, 202/24) and the current year to date, broken down by year.
1. Police referrals to immigration enforcement
a. The total number of cases in which your force shared information with, or made a referral to, any of the following:
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-
- Home Office Immigration Enforcement
- UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI)
- Border Force
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b. Of the above, how many related to:
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-
- Allegations of criminal offending (where no charge was ultimately brought)
- Allegations that were later withdrawn
- Arrests that did not result in charge
- Charged cases
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2. Arrests and immigration impact
a. The number of individuals arrested by your force who were subsequently subject to:
-
-
- Immigration detention
- Immigration bail conditions
- Removal proceedings
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b. Of those arrested but not charged, how many still became a subject to immigration action?
3. Disclosure to the Home Office/courts
a. The number of occasions on which your force provided material to the Home Office for the purpose of:
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-
- Visa decisions
- Leave to remain decisions
- Deportation or removal proceedings
- Immigration bail hearings
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b. The average time taken to provide such disclosure from the date of the request.
4. Data accuracy and corrections
a. The number of instances in which information your force supplied to the Home Office was later corrected, amended, or withdrawn.
b. The reasons for such corrections (categorised, if possible, e.g. inaccurate record, misidentification, case dropped).
5. Complaints and oversight
a. The number of complaints received relating to:
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-
- Inaccurate immigration related disclosure
- Unlawful or disproportionate information sharing with immigration authorities
- Failure to disclose exculpatory information.
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b. Of those complaints, how many were:
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-
- Upheld
- Partially upheld
- Not upheld
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6. Policy and Safeguards
a. Please confirm whether your force has a written policy governing:
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-
- Information sharing with immigration authorities
- Disclosure where there has been no charge or conviction
- Consideration of family or human rights impacts before disclosure
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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 29.6 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 Question 1b 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 all records.
It has been established that there are a total of 178 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 record in respect of your request (as outlined above). The process outlined results in the below time estimate.
178 records x 10 minutes = 29.6 hours
Time estimate to complete task = 29.6 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.
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 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.
Q1.a
2021/22 – 23
2022/23 – 796
2023/24 – 79
Q2
Dyfed-Powys Police do not hold information regarding the outcomes of any immigration arrests and whether they were subject to immigration detention, immigration bail conditions, removal proceedings, etc.
Police do not have primacy for any immigration offences. The only outcome we apply to immigration offences on custody records is titled “Immigration” and all that highlights is that the detainee has been handed over to Immigration for further progression. We are not privy to any further details of the Immigration investigation and whether they were subject to immigration detention, bail conditions, or removal proceedings. This information would be held by Immigration.
Q3 & Q4
Please be advised that this information is potentially held, however, it has not been assessed due to the time estimate for Q1b negating the Force’s requirement to process this request any further.
Q5
0 complaints relating to immigration received during the identified time period.
Q6
No policy identified.
(This is a response under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and disclosed on 11/02/2026)
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