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: 467-2023
I write in connection with your request for information which was received on 2nd May 2023 as follows:
I'm writing to you under the Freedom of Information Act (2000) to ask that you please disclose to me information relating to records kept on people arrested on ideological grounds (including but not limited to protest action).
Specifically I'd like to know how many individuals from the following groups have been arrested for the years 2021 and 2022:
Extinction Rebellion, Ocean Rebellion, Coal Action Network, Right to Roam, Earth First, Youth Strike 4 Climate, Rising Tide, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), Burning Pink, Tree Defenders, Fossil Free, Just Stop Oil, Insulate Britain, HS2 Rebellion (or anti-HS2 protestors), or any other relevant groups falling into the broad field of climate activism and education.
Alternatively, if the information cannot be split that way, would it instead be available by more broad key fields like "environmental protests" or "climate protest", as this would be preferable so as not to miss out on people included from smaller groups. Any way it can be made available would be fine, but to clarify, I'm not seeking the personal information of anyone involved, nor do I need to know the specific reason for arrest beyond it being related to action within an environmental group, or whether (or which) covert tactics or policing methods were used to make the arrests.
Ideally, just the base figures of either how many people from this group have been arrested (or times have people been arrested. as I', aware the same person could get arrested on multiple occasions), or how many times individuals have been arrested for engaging in climate action.
If the information still cannot be retrieved due to cost, then I'd like to request that the information regarding people arrested during such protests is made available to me in whatever form it can be (redacted as necessary) so that I can manually sift through this information, so as to avoid going over cost limit for the Act (if, for example) it's split into protest and technically searchable, but a large data set).
If however information can be given such as "disruption", or if alternatively, this information would have recorded been under certain acts or offensive, such as anti-protest legislation, terrorism, or a specific category made for ease of reference for this type of case, then please could you advise the best way in which to hone down in that way for both my own ease and ease of the processor of the request. If this is how it's recorded, then I'd like to know under which legislation the arrests have been made, please.
I'd like to know, if possible, the easiest form this would be retrievable in, as I'm aware different forces will record things on different systems, but that there will likely be common ways in which records are kept by the individual forces. A spreadsheet with the group or ideology, number of arrests, and non-essentially for the offences.
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 on ideological grounds, or in relation to any type of protest or environmental group action, 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, to confirm whether the wider circumstances of the arrest met these criteria. Following a scoping exercise, the business area has advised that there were over 12,284 arrests for the period 1st January 2021 and 31st December 2022. At a conservative estimate of 5 minutes per record to review, this would equate to in excess of 1,023 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 some information has been published on the Warwickshire Police website in relation to the Kingsbury Oil protests, which led to 326 arrests in 2022. Further details 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