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FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: 223-2024
I write in connection with your request for information which was received on 19th February 2024, and clarification received on 12th March 2024, as follows:
Please detail the number of individuals who were wanted on court arrest warrants for common assault, serious assault or rape for at least three months before they were arrested (or were never arrested).
Please break the data down into type of offence, the month the warrant was issued and the length of time before the individual was arrested. Please supply the data for warrants issued between Jan 2021 and December 2023.
On 11th March 2024 we requested the following clarification:
In order to be able to respond to your request we require further information from you.
Whilst common assault and rape are specific offences, it is not clear from your request what information is being requested where you have stated 'serious assault’.
Therefore, please can you specify the exact offences that you require information on where you have used this description.
In order to provide assistance I have attached the Home Office Counting Rules, which show all notifiable crime classifications. The most relevant section is likely to be ‘Violence against the person’.
Further, please can I ask you to clarify that you are only asking about rape offences and not other sexual offences such as sexual assault?
On 12th March 2024 you provided the following clarification:
Thank you for your email. Please add to my original request, the categories: homicide, violence with injury, violence without injury and stalking and harrassment. I confirm I'm not asking about sexual assault.
Please accept my sincere apologies for the delay in providing the response to your request and for any inconvenience that this may have caused you. Please find the Warwickshire Police response set out below.
Response: The business area has advised that the information requested is not held in a readily retrievable format. Searches were conducted for all warrants issued, during the stated period, in relation to homicide offences, any violence related offences (with or without injury), any stalking and harassment offences and any rape offences.
This produced 364 records and the business area has advised the it would be necessary to manually review each and every one on and individual basis in order to ascertain timeframes. An estimate of the time involved is set out below:
364 x 5 mins = 1820 minutes / 60 = 30 hours
This would be above the amount to which we are legally required to respond ie, the work involved in locating, retrieving and recording the information requested for exceeds the cost threshold (£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 s12(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, this letter acts as a Refusal Notice for your 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 amount of records that would need to be reviewed, I am unable to suggest a way to reduce this element of your request into one which could be provided within the fees limit unless you were to reduce the timeframe to, say, one year.
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