FOI 245-2025 / Feb 2025 / Dog attacks

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: 245-2025

I write in connection with your request for information which was received on 24^th February 2025 as follows:

1. The number of reported dog attacks (Home Office code 008/21 – owner or person in charge allowing dog to be dangerously out of control in any place in England or Wales injuring any person or assistance dog) for the following dates:

Feb 1 2020 – Jan 31 2021

Feb 1 2021 – Jan 31 2022

Feb 1 2022 – Jan 31 2023

Feb 1 2023 – Jan 31 2024

Feb 1 2024 – Jan 31 2025

2. If there is time, and you are able, please provide me with the number of attacks involving XL Bully dogs for the last annual period (Feb 1 2024 to Jan 31 2025).

Please find the Warwickshire Police response set out below.

Q1 response:

Q2 response: Please be advised that 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.  Therefore, in order to provide a response to this element of your request it would be necessary to manually review each and every one of the offences returned for Q1, on an individual basis.  At a conservative estimate of 3 minutes per record to review, this would equate to in excess of 70 hours of work and therefore the work involved in locating and retrieving the requested information 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 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, this letter acts as a Refusal Notice for this part of the 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 manually reviewed, I am unable to suggest a way in which these elements of your request could be revised to allow the requested information to be retrieved 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

[email protected]