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FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: 846-2023
I write in connection with your request for information which was received on 12th September 2023 as follows:
Q1. The number of dangerous dogs kept in kennels in the years:
2023 (to date)
2022
2021
2020
2019
Q2. The cost of keeping dangerous dogs in kennels in the years:
2023 (to date)
2022
2021
2020
2019
Please find the Warwickshire Police response set out below.
Response: Please be advised that the requested information is not centrally recorded and is therefore not held in a readily retrievable format. Regarding Q1, a dog can be seized or taken into police possession because they are considered dangerously out of control, however, this can happen for other reasons such as being a suspected banned breed, welfare reasons, removed from a crime scene, etc. Therefore, it is not the case that all dogs seized will be considered as dangerous, or, that all would be placed in kennels. The business area has advised that between the years 2019 and 2022, the force utilised a bespoke management system to record seizures, however, due to changes in 2022, this system, and the information recorded on it, is no longer accessible. Therefore, in order to determine a response to this part of the request, they would now have to manually review 375 paper records to identify those that related to dangerous dogs, and, of those, how many were placed in kennels. At a conservative estimate of 3 minutes per record, this would equate to in excess of 18 hours of work. Therefore, the work involved in locating and retrieving the information requested exceeds 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 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. I can advise that it may be possible to provide some information for this part of the request within the fees limit, should you wish to revise it to a period of say two years.
Outside of the Act, and as a gesture of goodwill, the number of dangerous dogs that were seized in years 2019 to 2022, which has previously been issued via 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 |
Regarding Q2, I can advise that it may be possible to provide some information relating to the overall cost of dangerous dogs to the force, however, the business area has advised that this is only available by financial year and cannot be broken down to show individual costs for kennelling.
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