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FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: FOI-981-2023
I write in connection with your request for information which was received on 23rd October 2023, and clarification received on 24th October 2023, as follows:
I am interested in data which I understand you hold on metal thefts in relation to solar panel farms and wind turbines. Specifically, I would be grateful if you would provide the following:
1) Number of thefts (I believe these are principally metal thefts involving cables) related to commercial solar farms/installations in the UK between Jan 2020 and Sept 2023. Please provide the data broken down by each year. If possible, please also state cause of loss against each crime e.g. cable theft. If you can’t differentiate between commercial and household solar panels, please include both.
2) Number of thefts related to wind turbines (as above, i believe these are metal thefts) in the UK between Jan 2020 and Sept 2023. Please provide the data broken down by each year. If possible, please also state cause of loss against each crime e.g. cable theft
Please use a free text search if specific categories are not available.
On 24th October we requested the following clarification:
Please be advised that there is no such offence as ‘metal theft’. However, there are ‘flags’ relating to metal theft within the crime recording system. These are:
The guidelines state that a crime should be flagged with one of these markers if the police employee filing the report believes that the intent for committing the offence was to remove the item for its scrap metal value rather than the acquiring of the item(s).
Therefore, for questions 1 & 2, do you require the number of crimes which have a ‘metal theft’ flag attached, recorded between 1st January 2020 to 30th September 2023, broken down by year, or something else? This can also be split between ‘metal theft – infrastructure related’ and ‘metal theft - non-Infrastructure’, if required.
Please note that it will not be possible to isolate those crimes that relate to commercial premises without manually reviewing each report, and such searches are likely to result in the request exceeding the fees limit. Similarly, details of items stolen are not centrally recorded on crime reports, and therefore this would also require a manual search of each report to collate the ‘cause of loss’ element.
As an alternative, a keyword search could be carried out against the crimes with ‘metal theft’ flags. This would be a search of the MO description summary field for the words ‘solar’, ‘panel’, ‘wind’ and ‘turbine’, and a total number of crimes containing these keywords could be provided as a result. However, it is important to note that, in the event that there are relevant offences recorded, but where these keywords are not present within the MO Description, then these will not be returned from the search. For this reason information retrieved by way of a keyword search cannot be assumed to be entirely accurate and should always be treated with caution.
Please advise how you now wish to proceed with your request.
On 24th October you provided the following clarification:
Would it be possible to search by ‘metal theft - infrastructure related’ and then on these results perform a key word search using terms such as ‘wind turbine’ and ‘solar’.
Please find the Warwickshire Police response set out below. When reviewing the information please note that it was obtained by searching for all theft offences, recorded during the period 1st January 2020 to 30th September 2023, with a marker of ‘Metal theft – Infrastructure related’. A keyword search has then been undertaken within the MO Description and Incident Summary free text fields for the terms ‘wind turbine’ and ‘solar’.
Response: I can advise that the above searches returned one result which was recorded in 2020 and related to solar panels.
However, as mentioned above, in the event that there are relevant offences recorded, but where the keyword terms ‘wind turbine’ and/or ‘solar’ are not present within the MO Description/Incident Summary fields, then these will not be returned within the search results. For this reason information retrieved by way of a keyword search cannot be assumed to be entirely accurate and should always be treated with caution.
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