FOI 637-2023 / July 2023 / Dog attacks
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: 637-2023
I write in connection with your request for information which was received on 3rd July 2023 as follows:
We are conducting research on the scale of dog attacks attributed to Bully XLs in the UK. We will be compiling this data nationally and we are happy to share the results with you in advance of publication.
Please could we have:
Q1. The number of dog attacks that have been recorded by your force? Please have this broken down annually, by breed and by any categorisation you might give for those attacks over the past 5 years.
Q2. The number of dogs seized by your force (dogs that are out of control, aggressive, have attacked someone/an animal or are considered dangerous) over the past 5 years? Broken down annually, by your categorisation and by breed.
(If you would like to save time compiling the above, we would only like data from dogs which are related to the Bully XL: American Bully, Staffy Cross or any type of Bully cross)
Q3. Has your force written to Central Government expressing concerns over the rise of attacks attributed to Bully XLs?
Q4. Is there anything you’d like to add about the views of your force when it comes to the rise of Bully XL attacks?
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 or marker within the crime recording system to easily identify the breed type of a dangerous dog, which has been out of control and caused injury, or whether it has been seized. Between the years 2019 and 2022, the force utilised a bespoke system to record seizures, however, due to changes in 2022, this system, and the information recorded on it, is no longer accessible. Therefore, in order to provide a response to Q1 and Q2 in regard to seizures and breed type, 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 1,037 such crimes recorded in a five-year period, between 1st January 2018 and 31st December 2022, broken down as follows:
|
Year |
Number of offences* |
|
2018 |
193 |
|
2019 |
178 |
|
2020 |
190 |
|
2021 |
210 |
|
2022 |
266 |
|
Grand Total |
1037 |
*08/21 – Owner or person in charge allowing dog to be dangerously out of control injuring any person or assistance dog
At a conservative estimate of 5 minutes per record to review, to determine the breed type and whether there was a seizure, this would equate to in excess of 86 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 these elements of your request could be revised to allow the requested information to be retrieved within the fees limit.
Outside of the Act, and as a gesture of goodwill, I can advise that a response to Q2, regarding seizures of dangerous dogs, for years 2019 to 2022, which has previously been issued for FOI requests, using information that was accessible from the bespoke system at that time, is set out below. A breakdown by breed type is not held, however, the number of dogs seized which were banned breeds has also been provided below.
In addition, as a further gesture of goodwill, responses to Q3 and Q4 have also 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.
Q2 response:
|
Dangerous Dogs |
2019 |
2020 |
2021 |
2022 |
Total |
|
Seized |
20 |
25 |
29 |
55 |
129 |
|
Of which were banned breeds |
1 |
4 |
0 |
0 |
5 |
Q3 response: Concerns about any specific breed are fed back through the Dangerous Dogs Working Group via the Force’s Dog Legislation Officers.
Q4 response: This is not a valid request for information under Section 8 of the Freedom of Information Act. As set out in Section 84, the Act only extends to requests for recorded information, and does not require public authorities to answer questions if this would mean creating new information or giving an opinion or judgement that is not already recorded.
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