FOI 738-2025 / Jul 2025 / Speeding
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: 738-2025
I write in connection with your request for information which was received on 22nd July 2025 as follows:
Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, I am requesting the following data for the calendar years 2019 to 2024.
- Speeding Offences and Fines
Please provide the following for each year between 2019 and 2024:
- a) The number of speeding offences your force recorded (e.g., fixed and mobile camera-detected and officer-issued offences under Section 89 of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984).
- b) The total value of Fixed Penalty Notices (FPNs) issued or paid, if held. (If payment data is not held, the number of FPNs issued alone is sufficient.)
- c) If available:
- A breakdown of speeding offences by day of the week, and/or
- Time of day (e.g. by hourly bands or AM/PM).
Please provide whatever granularity is available; if only the date is held, that’s still helpful.
- Theft from Motor Vehicles – Wheels & Tyres Please provide the following for each year between 2019 and 2024:
- a) The number of “theft from a motor vehicle” offences where wheels and/or tyres were reported stolen. This includes full wheel assemblies, individual tyres, or alloy wheels.
- b) If available, a monthly breakdown of these offences.
- c) If held, provide details of the most commonly stolen parts/items reported in “theft from motor vehicle” offences (e.g., tyres, wheels, catalytic converters, etc.).
If wheel or tyre thefts are not separately coded, please advise whether keyword search of MO/descriptive fields is possible, or provide the nearest equivalent data.
If your force uses different offence codes or terminology, please respond using the closest equivalent data available.
If fulfilling the full request would exceed the cost/time limit under Section 12, please prioritise:
- Total annual speeding offence counts
- Number of tyre/wheel thefts
- Total value of speeding fines (if held)
Data in spreadsheet format (e.g. Excel or CSV) is preferred, with years in separate columns where possible.
Please find the Warwickshire Police response set out below.
Response: Please be advised that the information requested at Q2 is not available in a readily retrievable format. There is no identifier on the Crime Recording System for theft of wheels and tyres during a ‘Theft from Motor Vehicle‘ offence. Keyword searches are not carried out routinely as they are not reliable, they will only bring back records where the chosen keyword(s) is present within the MO Description / Incident Summary of an investigation, these are limited free text fields and do not contain all information in relation to an investigation. In order to ensure that all relevant information is located it would be necessary to individually examine the wider investigation papers associated with the 13360 ‘Theft from a Motor Vehicle’ offences recorded during the stated period.
Such searches would take an inordinate amount of time which 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.
However, as you have specifically requested a keyword is carried out in the event that wheel or tyre thefts are not separately coded, the analyst conducted a search within the 13360 ‘Theft from a Motor Vehicle’ offences, recorded during the stated period, for where the keywords ‘wheel’ and/or ‘tyre’ (including plurals) are present within the MO Description / Incident Summary free text fields. I can advise that this returned 691 records which would each need to be reviewed on an individual basis to establish relevance (ie that the item was stolen rather than just being mentioned, for example, ‘the vehicle was broken into and x, y and z was taken and the tyre slashed’), and to determine the further detail requested. An estimate of the time involved is set out below:
691 investigations @ 5 minutes each = 3455 minutes / 60 = 58 hours
Therefore, the work involved in locating, retrieving and recording the information requested, even for a keyword search, exceeds the cost threshold (£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 section 12 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 relation to refining your request; however, due to the volume of records involved, I am unable to suggest a way to do so which would enable the searches to be carried out within the fees limit in relation to Q2. However, I can advise that were you to remove Q2 and resubmit your request, it may be possible to conduct searches in relation to Q1 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