FOI 631-2025 / June 2025 / Puberty blocker
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: 631-2025
I write in connection with your request for information which was received on 16th June 2025 as follows:
Q1. Please confirm how many enquiries or investigations your force has commenced since May 2024 with regards to suspected access to puberty blockers for children (U18s) in the UK, as per the Medicines (Gonadotrophin - Releasing Hormone Analogues, Restrictions on Private Sales and Supplies) Order 2024.
Note: I am aware of anonymity concerns. If the answer to question (1) is too few, for example <5, please only state whether your force has conducted any enquiries regarding access to puberty blockers for children since May 2024 - Yes or no.
Q2. Where possible - if answer to (1) was 1 enquiry or more - please confirm whether the enquiry was:
- a) A voluntary interview under caution, concerning suspected access to puberty blockers in the UK
- b) An arrest concerning suspected UK access to puberty blockers
Q3. Please confirm how many enquiries or investigations your force has commenced since May 2024 with regards to suspected overseas access to puberty blockers for children (U18s), as per the Medicines (Gonadotrophin- Releasing Hormone Analogues, Restrictions on Private Sales and Supplies) Order 2024.
Note: I am aware of anonymity concerns. If the answer to question (3) is too few, for example <5, please only state whether your force has conducted any enquiries regarding overseas access to puberty blockers for children since May 2024 - Yes or no.
Q4. Where possible - if answer to (3) was 1 enquiry or more - please confirm whether the enquiry was:
- a) A voluntary interview under caution, concerning suspected overseas access to puberty blockers
- b) An arrest concerning suspected overseas access to puberty blockers
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.
Please be advised that I am unable to confirm whether Warwickshire Police holds any information in relation to your request and Section 12(2) applies.
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.”
To explain further, there is no specific offence code relating to accessing puberty blockers for children, or any flag or marker to indicate where this is relevant to an investigation. Therefore, in order to determine if such information is or is not held and, if held, to ensure that all information is located, it would be necessary to carry out an extensive manual review of every investigation for a wide range of offences. The amount of work required to undertake such a task would be above the amount to which we are legally required to respond, i.e., the cost of confirming or denying whether any information relevant to the request is held, exceeds the ‘appropriate level’, as stated in the Freedom of Information (Fees and Appropriate Limit) Regulations 2004.
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 on how to refine your request; however, due to there being no way to narrow down the search field and the extent of the manual searches required, I am unable to suggest a way in which you could reasonably pare down your request into one that could be handled 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