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FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: FOI-388-2024
I write in connection with your request for information which was received on 8th April 2024 as follows:
I am interested in the following:
Please find the Warwickshire Police response set out below.
Response: Please be advised that the information requested at Q1 to Q3 is not held in a readily retrievable format. There is no marker within the Command & Control System to allow for easy identification of incidents relating to noise complaints. Searches were conducted for all incidents, reported between 2018 and 2023 where the words ‘NOISE’ or ‘NOISY VEHICLE’ is mentioned within the incident log text. This search returned 36,126 results and each would need to be reviewed on an individual basis to determine relevance and those located would then need to be reviewed in depth and possibly cross referenced with further systems to determine information in relation to Q2 and Q3. An estimate of the cost involved just to determine relevant information in relation to Q1 is set out below:
36,126 incidents @ 2 minutes per incident = 72,252 minutes / 60 = 1204 hours
Therefore the amount of time required would exceed the amount to which we are legally required to respond, i.e., the cost of locating and retrieving the information exceeds the ‘appropriate level’ as stated in the Freedom of Information (Fees and Appropriate Limit) Regulations 2004. For Police forces in the UK, the ‘appropriate limit’ is up to 18 hours of work on one request.
In accordance with section 12(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, this letter is a Refusal Notice for these parts 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; however, due to the extent of the searches required I am unable to suggest a way to revise these elements to allow retrieval of information within the fees limit.
Were you to remove Q1, Q2 and Q3 we may be able to conduct searches in relation to Q4 and Q5 within the fees limit should you wish to resubmit your request.
In the meantime, in order to provide assistance, I have included a link to one of our published FOI responses which contains some information which you may find useful.
FOI 709-2023 / Aug 2023 / Fines for noises | Warwickshire Police
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