FOI 528-2023 / May 2023 / Seizure of dogs

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: 528-2023

 

I write in connection with your request for information which was received on 23^rd May 2023 as follows:

 

As a freedom of information request, please provide monthly and annual totals from 2018 up until the most current date available at the point of production for the following:

 

Q1. The number of times the offences of an out-of-control dog causing injury has been recorded

 

Q2. The total number of dogs seized each year

 

Q3. The number, seized each year of: a) suspected banned breeds, b) suspected American Bully or ‘XL bully’ breed

 

Q4. The number of dogs seized, split by weight

 

Q5. The number of dogs destroyed each year.

 

Q6. The number of dogs destroyed each year, with a breakdown, if available of suspected banned breeds and suspected American bully breeds

 

Please provide such data electronically, ideally as a spreadsheet. If any point of data is not available or would make this request unduly burdensome, please disregard it.    

 

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 some of the requested information is not centrally recorded and is therefore not held in a readily retrievable format. In regard to Q2, Q3, Q5 and Q6, there is no field or marker within the crime system to record or easily identify when a dangerous dog has been seized or destroyed or to record breed type. Between the years 2019 and June 2022 the force utilised a bespoke system to record seizures and destructions, 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 the request 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 1,125 such crimes recorded between 1st January 2018 and the date of the request. At a conservative estimate of 5 minutes per record to review, this would equate to in excess of 93 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 (£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 the section 12(1) 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 of the Act 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 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, a response to Q2, part of Q3 and Q5, regarding seizures and destructions 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.

 

 

Dangerous Dogs*	2019	2020	2021	2022	Total
Dogs seized	20	25	29	55	129
Of which were banned breeds	1	4	0	0	5
Of which were destroyed	7	8	8	14	37

*A breakdown by breed is not available for the above

 

 

In addition, as a further gesture of goodwill, responses to Q1 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.

 

Q1 response: Searches were conducted for all offences classified under Home Office Code (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’, which were recorded between 1^st January 2018 and date of request.

 

Month	Total Offences
2018
January	4
February	9
March	20
April	11
May	14
June	22
July	20
August	24
September	21
October	22
November	15
December	11
2018 Total	193
2019
January	9
February	15
March	13
April	15
May	15
June	23
July	20
August	15
September	15
October	17
November	9
December	12
2019 Total	178
2020
January	9
February	12
March	9
April	18
May	16
June	21
July	16
August	21
September	18
October	18
November	20
December	12
2020 Total	190
2021
January	11
February	12
March	17
April	27
May	19
June	17
July	22
August	26
September	14
October	14
November	17
December	14
2021 Total	210
2022
January	19
February	13
March	17
April	28
May	30
June	25
July	17
August	32
September	19
October	24
November	23
December	19
2022 Total	266
2023
January	11
February	12
March	26
April	21
May	18
2023 Total (up to 23rd May)	88
Grand Total	1125

 

Q4 response: No information held.

 

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

[email protected]