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FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: 774-2023
I write in connection with your request for information which was received on 21st August 2023 as follows:
Q1. How many reports of out-of-control dogs have you dealt with between January and June 2023?
Q2. Please outline the breed involved on each occasion.
Q3. Please provide the same information for 2018-2022
Please find the Warwickshire Police response set out below.
Response: Please be advised that some of the requested information is not centrally recorded and is therefore not held in a readily retrievable format. There is no field within the crime system to record the breed type of a dog which has been out of control. In order to provide a response to Q2 for the period of January 2018 and June 2023, it would be necessary to manually review each and every crime recorded under Home Office Classification Code 08/21 – ‘Owner or person in charge allowing dog to be dangerously out of control injuring any person or assistance dog’. The business area has carried out a search and has advised that there was a total of 1,160 such crimes recorded for the specified period. At a conservative estimate of 5 minutes per record to review, this would equate to in excess of 96 hours of work for this part of the request, and therefore the work involved in locating and retrieving the requested information exceeds the cost threshold of £450, which equates to 18 hours work at a standard rate of £25 per hour, as stated in the Freedom of Information (Fees and Appropriate Limit) Regulations 2004.
In accordance with section 12(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, this letter acts as a Refusal Notice for this part of the request, and, if one part of a request exceeds the fees limit, then section 12 applies to the whole request.
In accordance with Section 16 of the Act, I have a duty to provide advice and assistance in relation to refining your request; however, due to the volume of records that would need to be manually reviewed, I am unable to suggest a way in which this part of the request could be revised to allow the requested information to be retrieved within the fees limit.
.
As a gesture of goodwill, the response to Q1, for the period between January 2018 and June 2023, has been provided below. Please note that this data was located before it was realised that not all of the information could be retrieved within the fees limit and should not be taken as a precedent that additional information would be supplied outside of the time/fees legislation for any subsequent requests.
Q1 & Q3 response: A search was conducted for all offences, recorded between 1st January 2018 and 30th June 2023, which were classified under the Home Office Crime Recording (HOCR) ‘8/21 - Owner or person in charge allowing dog to be dangerously out of control in any place in England or Wales (whether or not a public place) injuring any person or assistance dog’. Please see the results set out below.
Year |
Number of offences |
2018 |
193 |
2019 |
178 |
2020 |
190 |
2021 |
210 |
2022 |
266 |
2023* |
123* |
Grand total |
1160 |
*1st January to 30th June 2023
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