Domestic abuse reports 253/2022
FOI Reference: 253/2022
Request:
Please could I request:
- The number of recorded offences flagged as domestic abuse-related for the following crimes: violence against the person, sexual offences, miscellaneous crimes, public order offences, criminal damage and arson, other offences. I would like these at the daily between 1st January 2018 and 31st July 2020.
For the calls for service request is it possible to provide the following:
- The number of calls-for-service (Not by caller type as per my previous request) for domestic violence incidents daily between 1st January 2018 and 31st July 2020.
Response 1:
I can confirm that Dyfed-Powys Police does hold the information requested, however we are withholding some of that information by virtue of Section 30(1)(a) Investigations and Proceedings conducted by Public Authorities (please see below for an explanation of the applied exemption).
Please note: A total of 30 crimes have been exempted from the data provided in relation to question 1 under Section 30(1)(a).
- Please see the attached spreadsheet named FOI 253.22 and the tab within that spreadsheet named Q1 – which relates to offence/crime categories (as outlined above) that have a Domestic Incident marker/flag.
Explanation of the applied exemption:
Section 30(1)(a) Investigations and Proceedings conducted by Public Authorities
Section 30(1)(a) is a class-based qualified exemption. This means that the legislators when writing the legislation considered that the release of such information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 would cause harm to the public authority or individual concerned. There is therefore no requirement to carry out a HARM Test in respect of such information. However, there is a requirement to carry out a Public Interest Test in order to establish whether the public interest in maintaining the exemption may be outweighed by a wider public benefit in disclosure.
Section 30(1)(a) Investigations and Proceedings conducted by Public Authorities:
(1) Information held by a public authority is exempt information if it has at any time been held by the authority for the purposes of -
(a) Any investigation which the public authority has a duty to conduct with a view to it being ascertained (i) whether a person should be charged with an offence, or (ii) whether a person charged with an offence is guilty of it.
Public Interest Test
Considerations favouring disclosure:
Disclosure of the information would improve the public’s knowledge and awareness and would provide satisfaction to the public that these cases are investigated thoroughly and offenders are being dealt with accordingly.
Considerations favouring non-disclosure:
This exemption covers information held at any time for the purpose of an investigation, whether the case is ongoing, closed or abandoned. To release specific details of an ongoing investigation, as in this case, could undermine and prejudice those investigations. This would impact on the forces’ future law enforcement capabilities by hindering the prevention or detection of crime.
Balancing Test
After considering the advantages and disadvantages in disclosure, it falls upon Dyfed-Powys Police to conduct a balance test on the issues. The strongest argument for disclosure, which is public awareness, needs to be weighed against the strongest arguments for non-disclosure, which in this case is that the release would undermine and prejudice ongoing investigations, which would impact on the forces’ future law enforcement capabilities by hindering the prevention or detection of crime.
Therefore, in all the circumstances of the case, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.
Response 2:
I can confirm that Dyfed-Powys Police does hold the information requested, the details of which are as follows:
Please note: The information provided in the attached spreadsheet relates to the all incidents with an initial call-type of C-Domestic broken down by day. It should be noted that C-Domestic is used to log any type of domestic related incident and is not specifically violence related.
- Please see the attached spreadsheet named FOI 253.22 and the tab within that spreadsheet named Q2.
It should be noted that owing to the systems adopted by Dyfed-Powys Police in relation to the recording of such matters the information provided may or may not be accurate.
Police Forces in the United Kingdom are routinely required to provide crime statistics to government bodies and the recoding criteria is set nationally. However, the systems used for recording these figures are not generic, nor are the procedures used locally in capturing the data. It should be noted that for these reasons this Force’s response to your questions should not be used for comparison purposes with any other response you may receive.
(This is a response under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and disclosed on 17/05/22)