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Our reference: 01/FOI/24/005791/C
Date: 03/01/2025
I am writing to request information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 about crimes involving vehicle number plates within your jurisdiction. Specifically, I am seeking data on incidents reported in the last five years that involved:
1: Non-compliant number plates:
For each category, I would appreciate:
The Freedom of Information Act requires that this request is dealt with in a manner that is motive and applicant blind. A disclosure under this legislation is considered a disclosure to the world and is considered to be on the basis that it is in the public interest.
Section 1 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) 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. Where exemptions are relied upon Section 17 of FOIA requires that we provide the applicant with a notice which: a) states that fact b) specifies the exemption(s) in question and c) states (if that would not otherwise be apparent) why the exemption applies.
It has been advised that it is not possible to retrieve any part of your request within the ‘appropriate limit’ (18 – hours). This is because the information that you are requesting is not stored in a way which permits easy retrieval. In respect of question 1, it would be necessary to manually review over 5,681 records relating to number plate offences, which would exceed the time limit specified by the Act.
Please note that when one part of your request falls under Section 12, we are not obliged to review the rest of the questions and the whole request is therefore exempt.
Section 12 – Exemption where cost of compliance exceeds the appropriate limit. s1(1) does not oblige a public authority to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying with the request would exceed the ‘appropriate limit’ (18 – hours).
Activities that may be counted within our time estimations are:
The following have not been included within our calculations:
Please take this as a refusal notice in accordance with section 17(5) of the Act which states; A public authority which, in relation to any request for information, is relying on a claim that section 12 or 14 applies must, within the time for complying with section 1(1), give the applicant a notice stating that fact.
Although excess cost removes the forces obligations under the Freedom of Information Act, as a gesture of goodwill, I have supplied information, relative to your request, retrieved or available before it was realised that the fees limit would be exceeded. This is regarding questions 2a and 2b. I trust this is helpful, but it does not affect our legal right to rely on the fees regulations for the remainder of your request.
Ordinarily under our section 16 duty to provide advice and assistance, we would advise you how to refine your request to a more manageable level. However, due to the difficulties outlined above, I cannot see how this can be achieved in this case.
Please note that police forces in the United Kingdom are routinely required to provide information and statistics to government bodies and the recording criteria is set nationally. However, the systems used for recording these figures are not generic, nor are the procedures used locally in capturing the data. It should be noted that for these reasons this force’s response to your questions should not be used for the comparison purposes with any other response you may receive.
If you require any further information, please do not hesitate to contact us at [email protected] or 01482 578662.
Information Governance Unit
Humberside Police