Sexual offences & night time economy 503/2022
FOI Reference: 503/2022
Request:
1. Reports of sexual offences linked to the night-time economy over the last 5 years.
a. which of these offences involved drugs and/or alcohol
b. the proportion of sexual offences overall that were linked to the night-time economy
c. the proportion of sexual offences overall that were linked to the night-time economy and involved drugs and/or alcohol
2. Reports of receiving unsolicited pictures of male genitalia or “cyberflashing” over the last 5 years.
Please could all the above (requests 1 & 2) include:
- details of the local police area
- the nature of the offence
- whether the victim was male or female
Clarification requested:
Please specify exactly what is meant by ‘Night-time economy’. Do you refer to specific businesses, specific activities or offences that occur within particular areas?
Clarification received:
By the 'night-time economy' I mean pubs, bars, restaurants, and clubs (anywhere alcohol is sold, usually between the hours of 6pm and 6am). The offences don't need to have taken place within these establishments but will have in some way been linked i.e. one or both parties will have been 'on a night out', and most likely drinking.
By 'last 5 years' I mean the last 5 financial years, so 2017/18 - 2021/22.
Response 1 and 2:
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 1968.5 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 sexual offences linked to the night-time economy and unsolicited pictures of male genitalia over the last 5 years 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 for the information you are requesting, individual review of each sexual offence record would be required to established the information and then ascertain if there is a link. There are 1,473 records that would require review.
In relation to question 2, in order to provide the required information, each malicious communications and obscene publications record would need to be individually reviewed. There are 10,342 records that would require review.
In order to do this, it is estimated it would take approximately 10 minutes to review each record, of which there are 1,473 in relation to question 1 and 10,342 for question 2 for the time period given.
The relevant time estimate is detailed below:
1473 records x 10 minutes = 245.5 hours
10,342 records x 10 minutes = 1,723 hours
Therefore, total time estimate to complete request = 1968.5 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 July 2022.