FOI 396-2025 / Apr 2025 / Pursuits
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: 396-2025
I write in connection with your request for information which was received on 2nd April 2025 as follows:
Q1. How many pursuit-related fatalities occurred between 1 January 2014 and 31 December 2024? Please share both the total number of fatalities in the 10-year period and the number of fatalities per calendar year.
Q2. How many pursuit-related injuries occurred between 1 January 2014 and 31 December 2024? Please share both the total number of injuries in the 10-year period and the number of injuries per calendar year.
Q3. Please share all completed Pursuit Management Debrief Return documents for incidents which took place between 1 January 2014 and 31 December 2024.
Please note, I am requesting all Pursuit Management Debrief Return documents in a 10-year period, instead of Pursuit Management Debrief Return documents only related to a pursuit.
By "Pursuit Management Debrief Return documents" I am referring to the document completed after a pursuit to record and analyse the pursuit. Surrey and Sussex Police Forces call these documents "Pursuit Management Debrief Return forms" (as per Pursuit Policy 6.2), but your force may use another term.
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 Q1 and Q2, the business area has advised that information on fatalities and injuries relating to pursuits is not held separately. In order to provide the requested information, it would be necessary to individually review all ‘Death and Serious Injury’ records for the requested period to determine those that relate to pursuits and then, of these, those which relate to fatalities. The business area has further advised that given the time period, this manual review 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 Section 12(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, this letter acts as a Refusal Notice for these parts of the request, and, if any 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 information for a period of 1 year or less, should you wish to revise and resubmit your request, although any resulting information will still be subject to the usual disclosure considerations. In addition, I can also advise that the IOPC publish statistics around deaths following police contact broken down to force level, including pursuit-related fatalities. Therefore, you may wish to review their information, and I have provided the relevant links below:
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 Unit
Warwickshire Police
PO Box 4
Leek Wootton
Warwickshire
CV35 7QB