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FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: 894-2023
I write in connection with your request for information which was received on 27th September 2023 as follows:
Anabolic steroids, also known as anabolic-androgenic steroids, are synthetic substances that mimic the effects of testosterone, the male sex hormone. I am looking for information regarding the number of people who have been arrested who misuse anabolic steroids.
For ease of collation could you please provide the information in the table below.
Please find the Warwickshire Police response set out below.
Response: Section 1 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 places two duties on public authorities. Unless exemptions apply, the first duty at Section 1(1)(a) is to confirm or deny whether the information specified in a request is held. The second duty at Section 1(1)(b) is to disclose information that has been confirmed as being held.
Warwickshire Police are unable to confirm whether or not any information is held in relation to individuals arrested, during the stated period, who have been found to use anabolic steroids, and Section 12(2) applies.
Section 12(2) states: “…Subsection (1) does not exempt the public authority from its obligation to comply with paragraph (a) of section 1(1) unless the estimated cost of complying with that paragraph alone would exceed the appropriate limit.”
In the event that steroid use was disclosed when an individual was in custody, for example during contact with the Liaison and Diversion (L&D) team, it may possibly be recorded within the free text of the custody record. Therefore, in order to determine whether such information is or is not held, it would be necessary to manually review each and every custody log on an individual basis. Warwickshire Police have approximately 6000 custody records per year and, as you will appreciate, carrying out such searches would take an inordinate amount of time and, therefore, the cost of complying with paragraph (a) of section 1(1) would be above the amount to which we are legally required to respond i.e. the cost exceeds the ‘appropriate level’ as stated in the Freedom of Information (Fees and Appropriate Limit) Regulations 2004. An estimate of the cost involved is set out below:
6000 logs x 6 years = 36000 logs @ 3 minutes per log (minimum) = 1800 hours
In accordance with Section 12(2) 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.
Under Section 16 of the Act I have a duty to provide advice and assistance in relation to revising your request; however, in this instance I am unable to suggest a way to par down your request to one which could be dealt with within the fees limit.
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