FOI 678-2024 / July 2024 / Uninsured drivers
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: 678-2024
I write in connection with your request for information which was received on 24th July 2024 as follows:
Q1. For the years 2019-20, 2020-21, 2021-22, 2022-23, 2023-24: the number of uninsured drivers that have been caught driving without insurance in your force area.
Q2. For the years 2019-20, 2020-21, 2021-22, 2022-23, 2023-24: the number of accidents that have involved uninsured drivers.
Q3. For the years 2019-20, 2020-21, 2021-22, 2022-23, 2023-24: the number of vehicles seized because they were uninsured.
Please provide your response broken down by year and in excel format, if possible.
Please find the Warwickshire Police response set out below.
Response: Please be advised that some of the requested information is not centrally recorded and is therefore not held in a readily retrievable format. Regarding Q2, there is no mandatory or searchable field within the system used to record road traffic collisions (RTCs) to capture whether an accident has involved an uninsured driver. Therefore, it would be necessary to manually review the circumstances for each and every RTC recorded in the specified period on an individual basis. Due to the large number of RTCs recorded each year, determining a response to this part of the request would take an inordinate amount of time, and the cost of locating and retrieving the requested information would undoubtedly exceed the “appropriate limit”, 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 acts as a Refusal Notice for this request, and, if one question exceeds the fees limit then this 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 number of records that would need to be individually examined, I am unable to suggest a way to revise this part of the request into one that could be managed within the fees limit.
Outside of the Act, and as a gesture of goodwill, I have set out below the response for Q1. This was obtained before it was realised that not all the requested information could be retrieved in full within the fees limit and should not be taken as a precedent that additional information would be supplied outside of the time/fees legislation for any subsequent requests.
I can also advise that it should be possible to provide information in relation to Q3, should you wish to revise and resubmit your request for this element alone.
Q1 response: Please note that the below figures relate to the number of offences and therefore notices issued.
|
Year |
Total |
|
2019/20 |
1024 |
|
2020/21 |
1051 |
|
2021/22 |
720 |
|
2022/23 |
617 |
|
2023/24 |
767 |
|
Grand Total |
4179 |
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