FOI 352-2025 / Mar 2025 / Cannabis farms
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: 352-2025
I write in connection with your request for information which was received on 24th March 2025 as follows:
This is a request for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and relates to cannabis farms in the UK.
I would like to know:
The number of cannabis factories found in your area in 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024.
I would like to define a cannabis factory as: 'any property that is being used for the purpose to grow/cultivate cannabis plants, whether there is 1 plant or thousands of plants.'
I would like to know the largest number of cannabis plants found in a single property.
I would like to know the location (street name) of the property where the largest number of cannabis plants were found in a single property.
I would like to know how many convictions have occurred because of the discovery of a cannabis factory.
I would like to know where these convictions took place.
Clarification
On 24th March 2025 the following request for clarification was sent to you:
Our records show that you submitted a similar FOI request in January 2025 (Ref 126-2025). You were advised that there is no specific offence containing the words ‘cannabis farm’, and that ‘cannabis farm’ is a term sometimes used to refer to commercial or residential premises used to grow cannabis on a large scale.
We also advised that a Home Office crime classification of ‘92/21 – Production of cannabis’ may be recorded where commercial or residential premises are found to be growing cannabis. However, this will be the case whether the growth is small or large scale.
Following this, you revised request 126-2025 to:
"The number of crimes recorded under the Home Office crime classification of ‘92/21 – Production of cannabis’ recorded in calendar years 2023 and 2024.
In response, we provided the following information:
|
Offence |
2023 |
2024 |
Total |
|
092/21 - Production or being concerned in production of a controlled drug - Class B - Cannabis |
98 |
81 |
179 |
Regarding your new request, which asks for the number of cannabis factories found in 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, we are interpreting this to be a request for the number of ‘92/21 – Production of cannabis’ crimes recorded in the specified period.
Please clarify if we have interpreted the request correctly.
Please also be advised that there is no marker or field to record the number of plants found and that in order to determine the response to this part of the request a manual review of the investigation report and associated documentation will be required for each 92/21 crime recorded. It is believed that for the specified period this work will exceed 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 order to avoid the whole request being refused under fees please advise whether you wish to remove this element from the request.
Finally, please note that conviction information falls within the remit of, and is held by, HM Courts & Tribunal Services (HMCTS). You may therefore wish to contact them in regard to the last two questions relating to convictions.
On 24th March 2025 you advised:
Firstly, I can confirm that the interpretation of my request to be the number of ‘92/21 – Production of cannabis’ crimes recorded in the specified period is correct.
Secondly, in order for the request to be approved I will remove the 'number of plants found' element of the request.
On 25th March 2025 we asked:
Please confirm that your revised request is now:
The number of crimes recorded under the Home Office crime classification of ‘92/21 – Production of cannabis, recorded in calendar years 2020,2021,2022.
To which you replied:
I confirm my revised request.
Please find the Warwickshire Police response set out below.
When reviewing the information please note that it was obtained by searching for all offences with a primary classification of Home Office code ‘092/21 - Production or being concerned in production of a controlled drug - Class B – Cannabis’, recorded between 1st January 2020 and 31st December 2022.
Response:
|
Offence |
2020 |
2021 |
2022 |
Total |
|
092/21 - Production or being concerned in production of a controlled drug - Class B - Cannabis |
76 |
113 |
73 |
262 |
Please note that the numerical data presented in this response is an un-audited snapshot of un-published data sourced from "live" systems and is subject to the interpretation of the original request by the individual extracting the data
Every effort has been made to ensure that the information provided is as accurate as possible. However, it is important to note that the data is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale recording system, and care should therefore be taken to ensure data collection processes, and their inevitable limitations are considered when interpreting the data
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