FOI 125-2025 / Jan 2025 / Arson
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: 125-2025
I write in connection with your request for information which was received on 28th January 2025 as follows:
Please break the results down by the following:
- Month and year of the report (e.g. January 2022, February 2022, etc.)
- Location (As specific as is reasonably possible)
- If the investigation led to an arrest (yes/no/ongoing)
- If a suspect was formally charged with the crime (yes/no/ongoing)
- If the crime caused injuries to a victim or victims (yes/no)
- The age and gender (if known) of the offender
How many suspects were repeat offenders? By ‘repeat offender’, I refer to having been arrested or suspected of arson within the last five years.
Please provide the response in Excel/Sheets format where possible.
On 30th January 2025 we requested the following clarification from you:
Where you have stated, “Arson offence,” please clarify whether you are requesting offences classified under notifiable offence sub class 'Arson', which relates to 056/01 - Arson endangering life and 056/02 - Arson not endangering life.
If so, please be advised that a search could be conducted for all offences classified under 056/01 and 056/02 recorded by Warwickshire Police in the calendar years 2022, 2023 and 2024.
It may also be possible to provide a breakdown of the results by month and year, and, for the crimes where a suspect has been recorded, the suspect ages and genders, subject to the usual disclosure considerations.
However, where you have requested:
- Location (As specific as is reasonably possible)
- If the investigation led to an arrest (yes/no/ongoing)
- If a suspect was formally charged with the crime (yes/no/ongoing)
- If the crime caused injuries to a victim or victims (yes/no)
- How many suspects were repeat offenders? By ‘repeat offender’, I refer to having been arrested or suspected of arson within the last five years.
This information is not centrally recorded and will only be retrievable by conducting a manual review of each crime investigation to determine what information has been recorded around injuries and cross-referencing suspect details with other systems for arrest, charge and repeat offender information.
On average there are around 170 crimes of Arson recorded each year in Warwickshire. Information on recorded crime is available in the public domain via the below Home Office link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/police-recorded-crime-open-data-tables
Please be advised that the work required to manually review approximately 500 cases (170 x3 years) and the associated documentation, and conduct the necessary research of any suspects, would take approximately 10 minutes per crime. Please find a calculation set out below:
500 crime records (at least) @ 10 minutes per case to review investigation documentation and research suspect(s) = 83.33 hours of work.
I am therefore confident that this work would exceed the amount to which we are legally required to respond, i.e., the cost of locating and retrieving the information exceeds the ‘appropriate level’, as stated in the Freedom of Information (Fees and Appropriate Limit) Regulations 2004.
In order to avoid a refusal under fees, you may therefore wish to consider revising the request.
As previously advised and subject to the usual disclosure considerations, it may be possible to provide a monthly/yearly breakdown for all offences classified under Home Office Codes 056/01 and 056/02 recorded by Warwickshire Police in the calendar years 2022, 2023 and 2024 within the fee/time limit allotted to public authorities for FOI requests. In addition, where a suspect has been recorded in relation to the resulting crimes, it may also be possible to provide a breakdown of suspect ages and genders. It may also be possible to provide outcome types for all crimes (i.e., Type 1 - charge/summons), however, please be advised that crime outcomes will only reflect the most serious outcome for any suspect attached to a crime, i.e, where there are multiple suspects attached to an investigation, the outcome would not take into account ‘lesser’ or ‘like’ outcomes of any other suspect(s).
Please therefore advise whether you wish to revise your request as follows:
The number of arson offences (classified under Home Office Codes 056/01 - Arson endangering life and 056/02 - Arson not endangering life), recorded by Warwickshire Police in the past three calendar years (2022, 2023, 2024).
Please break the results down by the following:
- Month and year of the report (e.g. January 2022, February 2022, etc.)
- The age and gender (if known) of the offender
- Crime outcome types
On 30th January 2025 you advised:
Thank you for your detailed response regarding FOI request 125-2025.
I can confirm that I am happy to proceed with the suggested revision. From this point, onward, please revise my request for information to the following:
The number of arson offences (classified under Home Office Codes 056/01 - Arson endangering life and 056/02 - Arson not endangering life), recorded by Warwickshire Police in the past three calendar years (2022, 2023, 2024).
Please break the results down by the following:
- Month and year of the report (e.g. January 2022, February 2022, etc.)
- The age and gender (if known) of the offender
- Crime outcome types
Could you please also break down the results by classification (e.g. specifying how many fall under 056/01 and how many fall under 056/02).
Please see the Warwickshire Police response set out below.
Response: When reviewing the information please note that it was obtained by searching for all crimes classified as ‘056/01 - Arson endangering life’ and ‘056/02 - Arson not endangering life’ recorded between 1st January 2022 to 31st December 2024.
|
Crimes classified as ‘056/01 - Arson endangering life’ and ‘056/02 - Arson not endangering life’ recorded from 1st January 2022 to 31st December 2024. |
||||
|
Month |
2022 |
2023 |
2024 |
Total |
|
January |
16 |
11 |
9 |
36 |
|
February |
7 |
10 |
6 |
23 |
|
March |
9 |
10 |
13 |
32 |
|
April |
24 |
19 |
8 |
51 |
|
May |
17 |
18 |
16 |
51 |
|
June |
21 |
22 |
17 |
60 |
|
July |
26 |
25 |
15 |
66 |
|
August |
35 |
9 |
12 |
56 |
|
September |
18 |
10 |
14 |
42 |
|
October |
16 |
14 |
13 |
43 |
|
November |
13 |
5 |
11 |
29 |
|
December |
9 |
10 |
14 |
33 |
|
Grand Total |
211 |
163 |
148 |
522 |
When considering the information, please be advised that not all offences have a suspect recorded and some may have more than one suspect recorded; therefore, the number of offences will not tally with the number of suspects. In addition, as you will see from the crime outcomes, in a majority of cases, no suspect was identified.
|
Suspect Gender |
Total |
|
Female |
29 |
|
Male |
168 |
|
Not recorded |
2 |
|
Grand Total |
199 |
Please note that suspect age data has been adapted in such a way as to ensure that no individual can be identified by virtue of Section 40(2) of the Freedom of Information Act. Exemption under Section 40(2) is applicable where the information requested relates to a third party or could lead to the identification of an individual which would be in breach of the Data Protection Act 2018, in particular Article 5(1) of the GDPR which states that personal data shall be processed lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner in relation to the data subject.
|
Suspect Age |
Total |
|
Under 10 |
5 |
|
10 to 12 |
16 |
|
13 to 15 |
44 |
|
16 to 18 |
21 |
|
19 to 24 |
16 |
|
25 to 34 |
40 |
|
35 to 44 |
25 |
|
45 to 54 |
19 |
|
55 and over |
13 |
|
Grand total |
199 |
Please be advised that crime outcomes will only reflect the most serious outcome for any suspect attached to a crime, i.e, where there are multiple suspects attached to an investigation, the outcome would not take into account ‘lesser’ or ‘like’ outcomes of any other suspect(s).
|
Crime Outcomes |
Total |
|
Outcome not yet assigned |
15 |
|
Type 1 - Charged/Summonsed/Postal Requisition |
29 |
|
Type 1A - Charged/Summons - alternate offence. Offender has been charged under the alternate offence rule. |
3 |
|
Type 2 - Caution Youth |
2 |
|
Type 8 - Community resolution (Crime) |
6 |
|
Type 11 - Prosecution Prevented-Named Suspect Identified But Is Below The Age Of Criminal Responsibility |
4 |
|
Type 12 - Prosecution Prevented-Named Suspect Identified But Is Too Ill (Physical Or Mental Health) To Prosecute, or confirmed died either before crime reported or before enough evidence to charge |
3 |
|
Type 14 - Evidential Difficulties Victim Based- Suspect Not Identified: Crime Confirmed But The Victim Either Declines Or Unable To Support Further Police Investigation To Identify The Offender |
64 |
|
Type 15 - Named Suspect Identified: Victim Supports Police Action But Evidential Difficulties Prevent Further Action |
44 |
|
Type 16 - Named Suspect Identified: Evidential Difficulties Prevent Further Action: Victim Does Not Support (Or Has Withdrawn Support From) Police Action |
52 |
|
Type 18 - Investigation Complete; No Suspect Identified. Crime Investigated As Far As Reasonably Possible-Case Closed Pending Further Investigative Opportunities Becoming Available |
297 |
|
Type 20 - Further action resulting from the crime report will be undertaken by another body or agency subject to the victim (or person acting on their behalf) being made aware of the act to be taken |
2 |
|
Type 22 - Diversionary, educational or intervention activity, resulting from the crime report, has been undertaken and it is not in the public interest to take any further action. |
1 |
|
Grand Total |
522 |
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