Hate crimes 700/2022
FOI Reference: 700/2022
Request:
Please may I request how many hate crime charges brought in your force area in 2019/20 and 2020/21 involved a victim who was a police officer or police employee.
Please may i also request the percentage of hate crime charges brought in your force area in 2019/20 and 2020/21 that involved a victim who was a police officer or a police employee.
Finally, can I request how many of these hate crime charges with a police victim were for public order offences?
This data for previous years has been provided under the FOI Act - see here for full details https://www.lawgazette.co.uk/features/gazette-special-investigation-hate-crimes/5107953.article
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 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 299.49 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 reports of revenge porn and their outcomes 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 victim occupation is not a mandatory requirement on a crime record and each record will need to be checked to see if this information is held. It has been established that there are 1,797 crime records which would require individual review to establish this information.
In order to do this, it is estimated it would take approximately 10 minutes to review each record. The relevant time estimate is detailed below:
|
Year |
Crimes |
Time |
|
2019-2020 |
1,078 |
179.66 |
|
2020-2021 |
719 |
119.83 |
|
Total |
1,797 |
299.49 |
Therefore, total time estimate to complete request = 299.49 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 5th Oct 2022.