Spiking 218/2026

FOI Reference: 218/2026

Request

I am making a formal Freedom of Information request for the following data in the specified parameters:

 - Data about the number of spiking incidents since 2016, with each year of data in its own separate column.

 - Please provide this data in an excel .csv format.

 - Please indicate which area the case was from within your remit.

 - Please indicate where possible if a case became active.

 - Please indicate if a prosecution occurred.

 - Please indicate the type of spiking offence e.g. needle spiking, drink spiking, food spiking etc.

 - Please indicate why data was missing if it cannot be found.

Where the term "spiking" is used it refers to any crime whereby substances are administered illegally without the victim's knowledge as described in the Offences against the Person Act 1861, Sexual Offences Act 2003 and the upcoming Crime and Policing Bill.

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 266 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 4 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 1,594 records, due to spiking not being a specified incident category/offence, and therefore would have to review all incidents with the phrases ‘spiking’, ‘spiked’, ‘spike’ in order to identify the relevant records. This would have to take place in order to answer any of the other questions.  

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:-

See annual breakdown below (Pre – 2018 data not available due to accuracy).

1,594 records x 10 minutes per record = 266 hours

Time estimate to complete task = 266 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.

(This is a response under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and disclosed on 18/03/2026)