FOI 201-2025 / Feb 2025 / Business licence
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: 201-2025
I write in connection with your request for information which was received on 12th February 2025, and clarification received on , as follows:
Under the Freedom of Information Act please can I request the following information broken down by the following calendar years: 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024.
- How many applications has your force made to local councils to review the licence of a business suspected of selling stolen goods during the calendar years mentioned above.
- How many of these applications resulted in a licence being permanently revoked.
On 13th February 2025 we contacted you for clarification as follows:
We are unclear as to what recorded information you are requesting. In order to assist, please can you advise what type of licence you are referring to when you state, "the licence of a business suspected of selling stolen goods."
In addition, are you asking about where the force have applied to the council to obtain a copy of a licence or where the force have requested the council review whether a particular business should hold a licence?
On 17th February 2025 you provided the following:
Thanks for your email. For clarification I am asking as to how many times the force has requested the council review whether a particular business should hold a licence due to evidence that the business has been buying or selling stolen goods.
Here is a news article of an example:
https://rdg.today/stores-alcohol-licence-to-be-reviewed-over-concerns-it-sold-stolen-goods/
I am asking how many times Warwickshire Police has made similar applications.
Please find the Warwickshire Police response set out below.
Response: Section 1 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 places two duties on public authorities. Unless exemptions apply, the first duty at Section 1(1)(a) is to confirm or deny whether the information specified in a request is held. The second duty at Section 1(1)(b) is to disclose information that has been confirmed as being held.
Section 12(2) states: “…Subsection (1) does not exempt the public authority from its obligation to comply with paragraph (a) of section 1(1) unless the estimated cost of complying with that paragraph alone would exceed the appropriate limit.”
Please be advised that there is no specific identifier within the system which would allow easy retrieval of the requested information, if held. In order to determine whether any information is held it would be necessary to review approximately 2000 licensed premises records on an individual basis to ascertain whether there is record of a review. Such searches would take an inordinate amount of time and undoubtedly exceed the ‘appropriate level’ to which we are legally required to respond, as stated in the Freedom of Information (Fees and Appropriate Limit) Regulations 2004. For Police forces in the UK, the ‘appropriate limit’ is considered to be up to 18 hours of work on one request.
In accordance with Section 12(2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, please treat this letter as the Refusal Notice I am required to provide to you in respect of your request.
In accordance with Section 16 of the Act, I have a duty to provide advice and assistance in relation to refining your request where possible. However, due to the volume of records involved, I am unable to suggest a way to revise your request into one which could be undertaken within the fees limit as it stands. It is not known at this point, but it may be possible to review information for a much lesser time period of, say, one or two years, within the fees limit.
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