Victim and offender nationalities 790/2026

FOI Reference: 790/2026

Request:

Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, I request the following recorded information for the most recent three complete calendar years available (or financial years if that is how the data is held), plus year-to-date where available:

For recorded crimes in which both the victim’s nationality and the suspect/offender’s nationality are recorded on your systems:

1. The number of offences in which the victim and the suspect/offender were of the same nationality.
2. The number of offences in which the victim and the suspect/offender were of different nationalities.
3. Within the different-nationality cases, a further breakdown showing:
• UK-national victim and non-UK-national suspect/offender
• Non-UK-national victim and UK-national suspect/offender
• Both non-UK but different nationalities (if held)

Please provide the figures broken down by year. If a full nationality-level breakdown is not held or would exceed the cost limit, the binary same-nationality / different-nationality split, together with the UK-victim / non-UK-offender and non-UK-victim / UK-offender sub-categories, will suffice.

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 11,124.66 hours) to comply with this part of your request. The regulations can be located at https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2004/3244

The Freedom of Information department has been advised that the information in respect of your request is not held in an easily retrievable format as the nationality of the victim and/or the suspect is not routinely recorded on a crime record. 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 crime records to identify if the nationality of the victim/suspect has been recorded. It has been established that there are a total of 133,496 crime records that cover the period of your request.  It has also been established that it would take a minimum of 5 minutes to review and obtain the information for a single crime record in respect of your request (as outlined above).  The process outlined results in the below time estimate.

2023 = 37,110 crime records at a minimum of 5 minutes per record = 3,092.50 hours

2024 = 37,360 crime records at a minimum of 5 minutes per record = 3,113.33 hours

2025 = 36,246 crime records at a minimum of 5 minutes per record = 3,020.50 hours

2026* = 22,780 crime records at a minimum of 5 minutes per record = 1,898.33 hours

(*up to 13/08/26)

Time estimate to complete task = 11,124.66 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, however with due regard to the time estimate provided above it is unlikely that refining your request will fall under the 18 hours as the same method and format will have to be undertaken. Should you require any further advice in relation to this matter please don’t hesitate to contact the Freedom of Information department. 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 25/08/2026)