Animal-related crimes 536/2026

FOI Reference: 536/2026

Request:

1. The total recorded costs incurred by the force in responding to and investigating animal-related crimes, including:

   - the cost of officer time spent responding to incidents and carrying out investigations

   - costs associated with gathering evidence (e.g. statements, site visits, seizure support)

   - use of specialist units (e.g. rural crime or wildlife crime officers/teams)

   - custody-related costs where suspects are detained

2. The total recorded volume of police activity relating to animal-related crimes, such as:

   - number of incidents

   - recorded offences

   - use of specialist wildlife or rural crime officers

3. Total costs recovered, or liable to be recovered, for recorded animal-related crimes, including:

   - whether any of these costs are recoverable from offenders (e.g. through court orders)

   - any income received related to enforcement activity (if applicable)

   - any information on the proportion of liable costs that is not recovered

If exact financial data is not held, I would be grateful for any proxy measures (e.g. officer time, incident counts) or relevant internal documents that provide insight into the resource impact.

Please provide the above information for the following financial years: 2023/24 (01/04/2023 - 31/03/2024), 2024/25 (01/04/2024 - 31/03/2025), 2025/26 (01/04/2025 - 31/03/2026).

If you cannot provide the information requested above in financial years, please provide it in calendar years (2023, 2024, 2025) or however your data is stored. If you do not have this data for all the years requested, please provide the data for the years you have. If the requested years are missing altogether, please provide data for the latest available time period.

Response 1 & 3:

I can confirm that there is no information held by Dyfed-Powys Police due to the fact that this level of financial information is not available – unless it was for a specific operation.

Response 2:

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

2023/24 – 2189 incidents

2024/25 – 2238 incidents

2025/26 – 2302 incidents

2023/24 – 409 offences

2024/25 – 435 offences

2025/26 – 419 offences

2023/24 – 417 non-crime

2024/25 – 327 non-crime

2025/26 – 344 non-crime

2023/24 – 195 rural crime officers attended

2024/25 – 130 rural crime officers attended

2025/26 – 157 rural crime officers attended

Please note: The rural crime officers that have attended figure is whether it’s an incident, offence or non-crime offence.

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 24/07/2026)