FOI 441-2025 / Apr 2025 / Dogs
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: 441-2025
I write in connection with your request for information which was received on 15th April 2025 as follows:
Q1. The number of offences of out-of-control dogs causing injury to a person in the last three years (Between April 6th and April 5th 2022/23, 2023/24 and 2024/25). Broken down by year, number of offences, breed of dog, severity of injury and police outcome.
Q2. The number of dogs seized in the last three years - Broken down by year, by breed and by reason for seizure.
Q2a. The number of dogs destroyed in the last three years - broken down by year, by breed and reason for destruction.
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. There is no field or marker within the Crime Recording System to easily identify the breed type of a dog involved in a particular crime or severity of injury incurred by anyone involved. Therefore, in order to provide a full response to Q1, it would be necessary to manually review each and every crime recorded under Home Office classification code 08/21 – ‘Owner or person in charge allowing dog to be dangerously out of control in any place in England or Wales (whether or not a public place) injuring any person or assistance dog’ for the specified period. There are on average around 200 such crimes recorded yearly and, at a conservative estimate of 5 minutes per record to review, this would equate to approximately 50 hours of work for this part of the request.
Furthermore, in order to provide the requested information at Q2 and Q2a relating to seizures and destructions, it would be necessary to manually review the wider records and documentation of each and every seizure for the specified period. The business area has advised that for 2024 there were 131 dogs seized and that it would take approximately 20 to 30 minutes to review each seizure for the requested information, which equates to between 44 and 66 hours of work for 2024 alone.
Therefore, the work involved in locating and retrieving all the requested information at Q1, Q2 and Q3 exceeds the cost threshold of £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 is a Refusal Notice for this 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 volume of records that would need to be reviewed, I am unable to suggest a way to revise these parts of the request into one which could be provided within the fees limit.
I can advise that it may be possible to provide the number of crimes recorded between April 6th and April 5th for each 12 month period 2022/23, 2023/24 and 2024/25, which have been classified under Home Office code 08/21 – ‘Owner or person in charge allowing dog to be dangerously out of control in any place in England or Wales (whether or not a public place) injuring any person or assistance dog’, broken down by year, as well as a breakdown of crime outcomes should you wish to revise and resubmit your request.
You may find the below published responses to similar FOIs useful to review, prior to resubmitting any further requests:
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