Offence reporting & 101 waiting time 111/2022
FOI Reference: 111/2022
Request:
I'd like to know how many of the following offences were reported to your force via the 101 number in the 2021 calendar year:
A) Rape
B) Burglary
C) Stalking
D) Hate crime
I'd also like to know your average 101 waiting time for 2021 calendar year.
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 questions A&C of 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 questions A&C 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 of 6,180.83 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 is not held in an easily retrievable format. Therefore, in order to establish what information, if any, is held in relation to questions A&C of the request would require the individual interrogation of all incidents with the opening call type of ‘C-Assault, C-Domestic or C-Sexual’ (in relation to rape) and ‘C-Domestic, C-Harass, P-Safety/Welfare or P-Suspicious Activity’ (in relation to stalking) over the time frame specified would need to be undertaken to identify if the incident in question related to rape or stalking offences reported via 101. It has been established that for the period as specified within the request there are a total 7,337 incidents that would need to be reviewed in relation to rape offences and 29,748 incidents that would need to be reviewed in relation to stalking offences 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 question A (rape) or C (stalking) of your request as outlined above, resulting in the following broken down time estimate.
Question A:
2021 = 7,337 incidents@ 10 minutes per incident = 1,222.83 hours
Question C:
2021 = 29,748 incidents@ 10 minutes per incident = 4,958 hours
Total of 6,180.83 hours to complete task
Please note: Responses in relation to questions b, d and the 2nd part of your request are retrievable within the 18 hour time limit and have been provided at the end of the document 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 questions B, D and 2nd part of your request 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.
Question B:
- For the period of 2021 there are a total of 697 incidents with an opening call-type of C-Burglary.
Question D:
- For the period of 2021 there are a total of 226 incidents with an opening call-type of C-Hate.
2nd part of request:
DPP’s (Welsh & English) 101 service provides a telephony channel whereby the public are able to select from the following options :-
- To report a new (non-emergency) incident (Option 1)
- For queries regarding existing incidents, general information or advice (Option 2)
- If you know the extension you require (Option 3). Please note that this is an automated non-human call transfer process and as such average speed of answer data is not collected.
- For all other enquiries (Option 4)
Generally, the public consider 101 to be a contact channel for reporting non-emergency incidents. In this respect, Option 1 calls, reflect this expectation / commonly held belief of a 101 call i.e. a service to report non-emergency incidents. Some police forces use a ‘non-101’ telephone service for dealing with queries, existing incidents, general information or advice and other enquiries. In Dyfed-Powys Police these requests for service are served via 101.
Data provided accounts only for period 0700-0000 daily.
|
Average Speed of Answer (Seconds) |
|
|
101 Option 1 |
83.56 |
|
101 Option 2 |
254.28 |
|
101 Option 4 |
213.34 |
(This is a response under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and disclosed on 01/03/22)