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FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: 909-2023
I write in connection with your request for information which was received on 3rd October 2023 as follows:
I am writing this email to request the following information based on reported dog attacks (on pets and people) recorded monthly from January 2018 to 2023 (today). I would like as much data that is available please. Here are some of the specific questions:
Q1. How many reported dogs attacks were on people (adult/child/infant)?
Q2. How many reported dog attacks were on pets (dog breed/cat/other)?
Q3. Which breed (or type) of dog was involved in the reported attacks?
Q4. Where did the attack take place (at home, on lead during a walk, off lead during walk, escaped from home etc)?
Q5. What injury did the attack lead to?
Q6. How many, if any, attacks led to police seizures of the dog?
Two broader questions (if they can be answered) are:
Q7. How is a dog attack defined?
Q8. Would these reports include multiple reports?
Q9. Could the same dog be reported over a number of months?
Please find the Warwickshire Police response set out below.
Response: Please be advised that not all of the requested information is centrally recorded and is therefore not held in a readily retrievable format. There is no specific offence of ‘dog attack’. Notifiable Home Office offence code ‘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’, considers that a dog shall be regarded as dangerously out of control on any occasion on which there are grounds for reasonable apprehension that it will injure any person or assistance dog, whether or not it actually does so.
Further, where such an offence is recorded, there is no way of readily identifying from the crime recording system, whether a person or animal was injured, the breed of dog involved, where the incident took place, the level of injury or whether a dog was seized. In order to provide definitive figures in relation to Q1 to Q6 for the offence of ‘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’, it would be necessary to examine each and every investigation on an individual basis. During the period 1st January 2018 to 31st August 2023, a total of 1,232 such offences were recorded. A calculation of the time involved is set out below:
1232 offences @ minimum 5 minutes per record to review = 102 hours
Therefore, your request would involve a disproportionate amount of effort, which would take us over the fees limit (£450) 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, please treat this letter as the Refusal Notice I am required to provide to you in respect of your request. Please note that if one part of a request exceeds the fees limit, then Section 12 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 your request; however, due to the volume of records that would need to be examined, I am unable to suggest a way to pare down these elements of your request into one that could be managed within the fees limit. I can however advise that it may be possible to provide you with responses to Q8 and Q9 in relation to the offence code 8/21, should you wish to revise and resubmit a new 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