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FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: 1038-2023
I write in connection with your request for information which was received on 13th November 2023 as follows:
Q1. How many traffic collisions has there been where nitrous oxide has been involved per year? Please provide data for each year: 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023. Please provide as much data for 2023 as possible closest to the current day.
Q2. How many of those traffic collisions involving nitrous oxide have resulted in one or more fatalities? Please specify how many for each incident.
Q3. How many arrests have been recorded for the illegal sale of nitrous oxide from the start of 2016 to the 8th of November 2023?
Please find the Warwickshire Police response set out below.
Response: Please be advised that some of the requested information is not available in a readily retrievable format. In order to determine a response to Q1 and use the results to provide a response to Q2, it would be necessary to manually review each and every collision report recorded during the specified period. On average there are around 1000 collision reports recorded annually and at an estimate of 3 minutes per record to review, this would equate to approximately 400 hours of work for the specified period. Therefore, the work involved in locating, retrieving and recording the information requested 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 Section 12(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, this letter is 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 number of records that would need to be examined, I am unable to suggest a way to revise Q1 to allow it to be managed within the fees limit.
Regarding Q2, should you wish to revise and resubmit your request, it may be possible to provide some information relating to fatal collisions involving Nitrous Oxide as a standalone question, as this would be a smaller dataset to review, however, please note that this would be subject to the usual disclosure considerations. In addition, regarding Q3, should you wish to revise and resubmit your request, it may be possible to provide some information relating to the number of arrests for drug supply offences where Nitrous Oxide is stated in the arrest circumstances as the known substance. However, please be advised that due to system changes, arrest data is only available from January 2018 onwards.
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