Quickly exit this site by pressing the Escape key Leave this site
We use some essential cookies to make our website work. We’d like to set additional cookies so we can remember your preferences and understand how you use our site.
You can manage your preferences and cookie settings at any time by clicking on “Customise Cookies” below. For more information on how we use cookies, please see our Cookies notice.
Your cookie preferences have been saved. You can update your cookie settings at any time on the cookies page.
Your cookie preferences have been saved. You can update your cookie settings at any time on the cookies page.
Sorry, there was a technical problem. Please try again.
This site is a beta, which means it's a work in progress and we'll be adding more to it over the next few weeks. Your feedback helps us make things better, so please let us know what you think.
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: 425-2023
I write in connection with your request for information which was received on 18th April 2023 as follows:
Regarding arrests of people protesting under the banners of Extinction Rebellion, Insulate Britain, Just Stop Oil or Animal Rebellion (now Animal Rising).
That took place between 01/01/2022 and 31/12/2022
I would like the following information:
The date of arrest
The banner under which the person protested (IB, JSO, XR etc)
The place of protest
The ethnicity of the people arrested
The home town / village of the people arrested
The age of the people arrested
How many of the protestors were charged
Please accept my sincere apologies for the delay in providing the response to your request and for any inconvenience this may have caused. Please find the Warwickshire Police response set out below.
Response: Please be advised that the requested information is not centrally recorded and is therefore not held in a readily retrievable format. There are no identifiers within the custody system to allow for the extraction of individuals arrested in relation to protest activity, and in order to determine a response to this request, it would be necessary to manually review all custody records, and potentially any associated crime reports, recorded in the specified time period, for specific circumstances of the arrest. Following a scoping exercise, the business area has advised that there were approximately 6000 arrests for the period 1st January 2022 and 31st December 2022. At a conservative estimate of 5 minutes per record to review, this would equate to in excess of 500 hours of work. This would therefore exceed 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. For Police forces in the UK, the "appropriate limit" is up to 18 hours of work on one request.
In accordance with section 12(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, this letter acts as a Refusal Notice for this request.
Under Section 16 of the Act, I have a duty to provide advice and assistance; however, given the amount of work involved, I am unable to suggest a way that you could reasonably pare down your request into one which could be handled within the time allowed.
As a gesture of goodwill, I can advise that there were 326 arrests made by Warwickshire Police in relation to the Kingsbury Oil protests on various dates in 2022. However, information relating to the ethnicity, hometown, and age of each protestor, as well as whether the arrest resulted in any charges, is not centrally recorded. Therefore, it would be necessary to manually review each and every arrest record to determine this information. At a conservative estimate of 5 minutes per arrest to review, this would equate to over 27 hours of work, and this would also exceed 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.
In order to provide assistance, I can advise that some information has been published on the Warwickshire Police website in relation to these arrests, which can be found at the following link:
Every effort has been made to ensure that the information provided is as accurate as possible.
Your attention is drawn to the below which details your right of complaint.
Should you have any further enquiries concerning this matter, please write or email the Freedom of Information Unit quoting the reference number above.
Yours sincerely
Freedom of Information Officer
Freedom of Information Unit
Warwickshire Police
PO Box 4
Leek Wootton
Warwickshire
CV35 7QB