Sexual offences complaints 16/2022
FOI Reference: 16/2022
Request:
I want to know in your police area how many complaints of sexual offence were made in the last five years (01/01/2016 – 15/12/2021) where the injured person was under 18 and the occupation of the accused was recorded as tutor/teacher; and where you hold the information, specifically music tutor/teacher.
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 some 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 152.17 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 the information requested in relation to your request regarding police responses following reports of anti-social behaviour 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 it is not recorded in an easily retrievable format, the occupation of the offender as this is not a mandatory field for completion. Therefore, individual interrogation of all sexual offence crimes, where the victim is under 18 and offender is over 18 would be required to establish the occupation of the offender.
In order to do this, it is estimated it would take approximately 10 minutes review each relevant sexual offence crime, of which there are 913 between 1st January 2019 and 15th December 2021.
The relevant time estimate is detailed below:
|
Year |
2019 |
2020 |
2021 |
|
Crimes |
341 |
265 |
307 |
|
Time to review (hours) |
56.83 |
44.17 |
51.17 |
Therefore, total time estimate to complete whole request = 152.17 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.
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 the 20th January 2022.