FOI 685-2023 / July 2023 / Sexual abuse
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: 685-2023
I write in connection with your request for information which was received on 21st July 2023 as follows:
Q1. Please can you confirm the number of allegations received by the force in relation to sexual abuse claims against the scouts? Please limit your response to the number of cases received in the following calendar years: 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022.
Q2. Please can you also confirm how many of the allegations listed in the answer to question 1 led to either an arrest and/or a conviction?
Please find the Warwickshire Police response set out below.
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.
Warwickshire Police are unable to confirm whether or not any information is held in relation to your request and Section 12(2) applies.
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.”
In order to determine if such information is or is not held and, if held, to ensure that all information is located, it would be necessary to manually review all sexual offences recorded during the stated period to determine whether the force have ever received any sexual abuse allegations involving the Scouts, and, if so, further manual research and review would be required for each individual suspect to determine whether there were any arrests. As you will appreciate, this would take an inordinate amount of time and therefore, the cost of complying with paragraph (a) of section 1(1) would be above the amount to which we are legally required to respond, i.e., the cost of confirming or denying whether any information relevant to the request is held exceeds the ‘appropriate level’ as stated in the Freedom of Information (Fees and Appropriate Limit) Regulations 2004.
In accordance with Section 12(2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, please treat this letter as the Refusal Notice I am required to provide to you in respect of your 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 extent of the searches required to even determine whether any information is held, I am unable to suggest a way to revise your request into one which could be provided within the fees limit.
By way of assistance, I can advise that conviction data falls within the remit of HM Courts & Tribunal Service (HMCTS), and therefore you may wish to contact them directly regarding the conviction element of the request.
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