FOI 853-2025 / Aug 2025 / Complaints
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: 853-2025
I write in connection with your request for information which was received on 14th August 2025 as follows:
Periods are –
1 January 2010 – 1 January 2015
1 January 2015 – 1 January 2020
1 January 2020 – 1 January 2025
1 January 2025 – 31 July 2025
I want to request the following information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 for each of the above periods:
- The total number of complaints and/or reports of criminal offences (including misconduct in public office) made to your force by:
- members of the public
- businesses
- serving or retired police officers
against Licensing Police Officers.
- Of these cases:
- How many were formally investigated?
- What were the outcomes of each investigation (e.g., substantiated, not substantiated, withdrawn, etc.)?
- Of those investigated, how many resulted in:
- criminal charges being brought
- acquittals
- convictions
Clarification to assist processing:
For this request, “Licensing Police Officers” refers to officers whose primary role during the relevant period was within the Licensing Unit or equivalent department responsible for the regulation and enforcement of alcohol licensing, late-night venues, or related licensing matters.
Please find the Warwickshire Police response set out below.
Response: The business area has advised that the requested information is not available in a readily retrievable format. During the stated periods there are in excess of 22000 records for complaints only and it would be necessary to review each and every one on an individual basis to ascertain the information requested. The business area has advised that this would take approximately 5 minutes per record just to ascertain the information for Q1. Such searches would involve an inordinate amount of time which would greatly exceed 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 acts as a Refusal Notice for this part of the request and, if one part of a request exceeds the fees limit, then S12 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 suggesting ways to refine your request where possible and I can advise that it may be possible to provide some information for the period 1st January 2025 to 31st July 2025 as follows:
For Q1- the first part of the question ie the number of complaints or conduct matters (should you require information in relation to conduct cases also) recorded, but not in relation to where they originated, nor whether the officers were licencing officers as, again, it would be necessary to review each and every one on an individual basis to ascertain this information).
For Q2 - the outcomes and whether there were any investigations
For Q3 – it may be possible to conduct associated searches for this question, but it would depend on what has been recorded.
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