Encouraging serious self-harm 1247/2025

FOI Reference: 1247/2025

Request Q1

How many arrests were made by your force in 2023 for the offence 'encouraging serious self-harm to a child under Section 184 of the Online Safety Act 2023'?

Request Q2

How many people were charged in your force area for this offence in 2023?

Request Q3

How many arrests were made by your force in the annual year 2024 for the offence 'encouraging serious self-harm to a child under Section 184 of the Online Safety Act 2023'?

Request Q4

How many people were charged in your force area for this offence in 2024?

Request Q5

How many arrests were made by your force in 2025 for the offence 'encouraging serious self-harm to a child under Section 184 of the Online Safety Act 2023'?

Request Q6

How many people were charged in your force area for this offence in 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 2,734 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 1, Q3, and Q5 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 16,402 records, due to the fact that we cannot keyword search on our system to narrow down the search for the information requested for 'encouraging serious self-harm to a child under Section 184 of the Online Safety Act 2023' nor can we keyword search for arrests made in relation to these incidents.

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.

Q1 – 5,740 records

Q3 – 5,497 records

Q5 – 5,165 records

Total records = 16,402

16,402 records x 10 minutes per record = 2,734 hours

Time estimate to complete task = 2,734 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 the 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.

Please note:

A search has been conducted utilising offence code OS23006 (Encourage or assist serious self-harm by another) which captures all age groups, including children.  However, it is not possible to search prior to May 2023 due to the previous recording system not having this search filter available for this offence.

I can confirm that Dyfed-Powys Police does hold the information requested, as outlined below:-

Response Q1 & Q2

There were no arrests for the offence of ‘Encourage or assist serious self-harm by another’ in 2023 (May onwards), and therefore no persons charged.

Response Q3 & Q4

There were no arrests for the offence of ‘Encourage or assist serious self-harm by another’ in 2024, and therefore no persons charged.

Response Q5 & Q6

There were no arrests for the offence of ‘Encourage or assist serious self-harm by another’ in 2025, and therefore no persons charged.

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.

(This is a response under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and disclosed on 13/01/2026)