Synthetic opioid use 55/2022

FOI Reference: 55.2022

Request:

1. For the calendar years 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022 to date, the total number of reported incidents referring to synthetic opioid abuse;

 

2. For the calendar years 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022 to date, the total number of reported incidents referring to OxyContin/Oxycodone abuse, illegal dealing, and/or illegal prescriptions;

Can I have the data returned to me broken down by calendar year please.

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 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.

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 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 37,364 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 Unit has been advised that information requested in relation to your request regarding synthetic opioid abuse, OxyContin/Oxycodone abuse, illegal dealing and/or illegal prescriptions is not held in an easily retrievable format and would exceed the appropriate time limit, i.e. 18 hours, to retrieve.

This is due to the fact that this information isn’t routinely recorded and we are unable to carry out a ‘keyword’ search for the information you have requested.

The information may be held within the incident report, however this would require a review of each relevant incident call type’s listed below, for the period 1^st January 2017 to 17^th January 2022 inclusive.

For the time period given, we have been advised by the relevant department that there are 224,184 call types that would require review, each taking approximately 10 minutes to review.  The relevant time estimate is detailed below:

 

	A-ASB	A-NUIS	A-PERS	ASB	C-DRUGS	P-SAFE/WEL	P-SUS.ACTI	Total	Time Estimate (Hours)
2017	11006	6	1	28	334	26372	13032	50779	8463.17
2018	9325				225	21024	13524	44098	7349.67
2019	8221				175	19301	12554	40251	6708.50
2020	13223				226	19146	13079	45674	7612.33
2021	7743				226	20881	12884	41734	6955.67
2022	267				2	919	460	1648	274.67
Total	49785	6	1	28	1188	107643	65533	224184	37364.00

Therefore, total time estimate to complete whole request = 37,364 hours

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.

Where this information has been recorded, this may be retrievable within the time period.

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 9^th February 2022.