Postage theft 402/2022
FOI Reference: 402/2022
Request:
I am writing to you under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to request the following information.
- I would like to know the numbers of reported incidents of postage theft in your police force, separated by year.
- I would like this data for the last three calendar years – 2019, 2020 and 2021 – and, if possible, I would also like this data for Quarter 1 of 2022 (January – March).
- If possible, could the data please be broken down by the postcode area in which it occurred.
Clarification sought:
- Do you wish us to disclose the number of incidents or crimes?
- Theft of Mail is a specific offence which applies to the theft of letters and parcels which are in the process of being delivered by way of a business. When you refer to “postage theft” is this what you require, or do you require ALL theft of letters/ parcels regardless of whether they are still in the process of being delivered. E.g. Person A invites Person B into their property. On the kitchen table is a letter delivered a week earlier addressed to Person A which Person B takes without permission. This would not be classed as theft of mail but would be theft from a dwelling as the letter had been delivered.
Response to clarification:
- If possible, can you please provide the data requested for both incidents and crimes as separate datasets.
- I’m just looking for information around theft of mail, so letters, parcels and postal packets that are in the process of being delivered.
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.
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.
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. The following exemption has been applied to the whole of the information you have requested:
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 determining what information is held, if any, relevant to 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 2,622 hours) to comply with 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 respect of your request relating to incidents is not held in an easily retrievable format as there is no specific call type/category to denote theft of mail. Therefore, in order to establish what information, if any, is held in relation to this request for incidents would require the individual interrogation of all incidents under the call type/category of ‘C-Theft’ over the time frame specified to identify if the incident in question related to the theft of mail. It has been established that for the period as specified within the request (i.e. 2019 – 2022) there are a total 15,732 ‘C-Theft’ incidents that would require researching. It has been estimated that it would take a minimum of 10 minutes to research a single incident for relevance to your request as outlined above, resulting in the following broken down time estimate.
2019 = 5,959 ‘C-Theft’ incidents @ 10 minutes per incident = 993.17 hours
2020 = 4,357 ‘C-Theft’ incidents @ 10 minutes per incident = 726.17 hours
2021 = 4,322 ‘C-Theft’ incidents @ 10 minutes per incident = 720.33 hours
2022 = (Jan - March) = 1,094 ‘C-Theft’ incidents @ 10 minutes per incident = 182.33 hours
Total of 2,622 hours to complete task
In addition to the above, please see below for a response to your request relating to crimes of theft of mail, which has been provided as a gesture of goodwill and outside of the FOI act.
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, 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 Unit. Please also be advised that should the request be refined, it does not remove the Force’s right to cite exemptions if relevant.
Although excess cost removes the forces obligations under the Freedom of Information Act to provide any further information, as a gesture of goodwill, I have provided information, relative to your request i.e. crimes of theft of mail which has been easily retrievable and outlined below. I trust this is helpful, but it does not affect our legal right to rely on the fees regulations for the remainder of your request.
|
Theft of Mail 2019 - 2022 (Up to and including 31/03) |
|||||
|
Postcode Area |
2019 |
2020 |
2021 |
2022 |
Grand Total |
|
LD1 |
2 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
4 |
|
LD3 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
|
SA14 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
|
SA15 |
0 |
2 |
2 |
0 |
4 |
|
SA18 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
|
SA38 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
|
SA39 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
|
SA61 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
|
SA62 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
|
SA68 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
|
SA70 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
|
SA72 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
|
SA73 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
|
SA9 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
|
SY16 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
2 |
|
SY17 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
|
SY23 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
|
Grand Total |
3 |
9 |
9 |
4 |
25 |
(This is a response under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and disclosed on 07/06/22)