Red traffic light offences 379/2026

FOI Reference: 379/2026

Request:

For the purposes of this request, I am referring to offences where a driver fails to stop at a red traffic light on a public road. Where possible, please exclude offences relating solely to other signal types such as level crossings or temporary roadworks signals. 

I would be grateful if you could provide the following: 

Q1. The total number of offences recorded for failing to comply with a red traffic light signal in each of the following calendar years: 2023, 2024, and 2025. 

Q2. The total number of offences recorded for the same offence from 1 January 2026 to 31st March. 

Q3. Where available, the top five locations, roads or junctions within your force area where the highest number of these offences were recorded. 

Q4. Where available, a breakdown of offences by time of day. For example, grouped into bands such as: 

• Morning (5am to 11:59am)   
• Afternoon (12pm to 4:59pm)   
• Evening (5pm to 8:59pm)   
• Night (9pm to 4:59am)   

Q5. Where available, the number of offences recorded in each month for the most recent full calendar year. 

Q6. Where available, the total number of penalties issued for these offences, including Fixed Penalty Notices, prosecutions, or driver education courses. 

If available, please indicate whether the figures provided include offences detected via automatic enforcement cameras. 

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. 

I can confirm that the cost of determining whether any information relative to this request is or isn’t held is above the amount to which we are legally required to respond therefore we are withholding the whole of the requested information since we consider that the Section 12 (2) exemption the Cost of Compliance exceeds the Appropriate Limit applies to it. 

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. The following exemption has been applied to the whole of the information you have requested: 

Section 12(2) – The cost of compliance exceeds the Appropriate Limit 

Section 12(2) states: “…Subsection (1) does not exempt the public authority from its obligation to comply with paragraph (a) of section 1(1) unless the estimated cost of complying with that paragraph alone would exceed the appropriate limit.” 

The cost of determining what information is held, if any, relevant to 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. between 19 - 37 hours) to comply with your request. The regulations can be located @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. The relevant department have reviewed the request and established that the required data is not currently retrievable through existing data reporting products and an existing script does not exist. Consequently, the steps required to initially understand if the data is available and subsequently complete the required extraction, verification, and analysis, through the writing of a new bespoke script, would exceed 18 hours. A breakdown of the steps required and the estimated time it would take per step is detailed below:  

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.

(This is a response under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and disclosed on 22/05/2026)