FOI 903-2023 / Oct 2023 / Dangerous dogs
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: 903-2023
I write in connection with your request for information which was received on 02/10/2023 as follows:
- The number of offences your force recorded of out-of-control dogs causing injury for the calendar years from 2014-2022 and for the current year (2023) to date.
- The number of seizures of dogs by your force for each of the calendar years 2014-2022 and calendar year for 2023 to date.
- Please break down the breeds of the dogs in each of the years in (2) above
- Of the dogs in each of the years in (2) above, how many were seized as a result of being dangerously out of control?
- Of the dogs in each of the years in (2) above how many were seized on suspicion of being a banned breed?
- Of the dogs in each of the years in (4) above how many were confirmed to be a banned breed?
Please could you provide this information in spreadsheet format.
Regarding Question 1, and data between 2014 and 2023. Should you feel that this breaches the cost/time limit of the Act, please could you provide data from 2018 to 2023 instead.
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 are no specific fields or markers within the crime recording system to easily identify when a dog was seized or was suspected/confirmed as a banned breed. Between 2019 and 2022, the force utilised a bespoke system to record dog 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 responses for questions 2 to 6 of the request, it would be necessary to manually review each and every crime recorded under notifiable 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’. There is a total of 1,232 such offences recorded between 1st January 2018 and 31st August 2023, as broken down below. This does not take into consideration further, non-notifiable offences, where no injuries were reported.
|
Year |
8/21 - Number of offences |
|
2018 |
193 |
|
2019 |
178 |
|
2020 |
190 |
|
2021 |
210 |
|
2022 |
266 |
|
2023 (up to end Aug) |
195 |
|
Grand total |
1232 |
* Please note that due to system changes, crime information is only available from Oct 2017 onwards.
At a conservative estimate of 5 minutes per record to review, this would equate to in excess of 102 hours of work, and therefore the time required to locate and retrieve the requested information would exceed 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 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. I can advise that it may be possible to provide responses to Q4 and Q5 of the request for the period of 1st January 2023 to date, should you wish to revise and resubmit your request. This will be based on dangerous dog seizure figures collated manually since the loss of the bespoke system in 2022 and will not necessarily align directly with 08/21 offences recorded for the same period.
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