Sexual offences 445/2022
FOI Reference: 445/2022
Request:
1. What are the outcomes of rape crimes across the force from 2015 until April 2022? Broken down year by year and by county (Ceredigion, Powys, Carmarthenshire, Pembrokeshire). Can this include gender of victim and of perpetrator.
2. What are the outcomes of sexual abuse from 2015 until April 2022? Broken down year by year and by county. Can this include gender of victim and perpetrator.
3. How many allegations of sexual misconduct have been made against officers and staff from your force, from 2015 to April 2022? Broken down year by year and by county. Can you also include the gender and position of the victim and perpetrator.
4. Of these allegations of sexual misconduct (under number 3), what was the outcome from each one.
Clarification: For Q1, all outcome types for rape offences recorded. For Q2, all outcome types of sexual offences recorded. For Q3, all complaints of a sexual nature made against officers and staff.
Clarification: By position, I mean role with the police. E.G. PCSO, etc. I would like the number of sexual misconduct allegations against staff and officers in Dyfed Powys Police broken down, year by year, from 2015 to April 2022. I would also like these separated for each of the counties in the force.
If possible, I would like the gender and position of the perpetrators (not necessary to state that of the victims if they are not in the force). However, if this is not possible or exceeds to cost, the gender and position is not necessary. Please just complete the first part of the third request.
Clarification: Under the 'outcomes of rape crimes', for example, all could be included. Complaints and conduct cases.
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 20.1 hours) to comply with this part of your request. The regulations can be located @
www.legislation.hmso.gov.uk/si/si2004/20043244.htm
The Freedom of Information Department has been advised that the information in relation to question 3 and 4 of your request is not held in an easily retrievable format. Although the complaints data is more straight forward and have categories that capture sexual misconduct, the data does not directly correlate with the conduct cases. There is no field/category that captures sexual misconduct on the conduct records. Therefore, once the relevant records have been identified, a manual extraction of the requested information would be required. In addition to the estimated 2.5 hours to capture the data, It has been established that there are a total of 212 conduct cases that would require individual interrogation and it has been estimated that it would take a minimum of 5 minutes to research each individual record.
Complaints cases interrogated for relevance = 2.5 hours
Conduct cases requiring interrogation are as follows:
2015: 26 records x 5 minutes per record = 2.1 hours
2016: 35 records x 5 minutes per record = 2.9 hours
2017: 23 records x 5 minutes per record = 1.9 hours
2018: 21 records x 5 minutes per record = 1.7 hours
2019: 31 records x 5 minutes per record = 2.5 hours
2020: 34 records x 5 minutes per record = 2.8 hours
2021: 32 records x 5 minutes per record = 2.6 hours
2022 (up to 28/07/2022): 10 records x 5 minutes per record = 0.8 hours
Total time estimate to complete whole request = (2.5 hours plus 212 records x 5 minutes per record at hours at 17.6 hours = 20.1 hours)
Question 1 & 2:
The relevant department has advised that a response can be provided within the appropriate time limit, i.e. 18 hours.
Further to Question 3 and 4, the department responsible for providing the information have advised that the following links are publicly available with the IOPS and Home Office which will contain some of the information requested.
IOPC Statistics and Annual Reports
Home Office Police Workforce Statistics
In accordance 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 me.
Please also be advised that should the request be refined, it does not remove the Force’s right to cite exemptions if relevant.
(This is a response under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and disclosed on 08/08/2022)