FOI 405/25

REQUEST

1. Do you  not  think  it  is  about  time  that  you  did  have  a  protocol  for  dealing  with  such  crimes  as  I  have  described ?

2. As  a  South  Wales  constabulary  do  you  have  any  experience  of  investigating  such  crimes  as  these ?

3. If  you  do ,  were  any  of  the  perpetrators  brought  to  justice ?

Clarification on questions 2 and 3:

My  question  was:  does  South  Wales  Police  have  any  experience  of  investigating  crimes  or  incidences  related to  Black  magic /  witchcraft ?  If  they  do ,  were the perpertrators  brought  to  justice ?

Further  to  my  question  to  you  if  South  Wales  police  have  any  experience  of  investigating   crimes /  incidences  involving  Black  Magic  or  witchcraft  I  can see  that  you  are  now  asking me  to  give a  date  range .  Let  us  say  January  2015  to  January  2025 . 

RESPONSE

Question 1

The Freedom of Information Act 2000 creates a statutory right of access to recorded information held by public authorities. When processing requests for information under the Freedom of Information Act, public authorities have two duties to consider. Section 1(1)(a) is the duty to confirm or deny that the requested information is held and Section 1(1)(b) is to the duty to communicate the requested information to the applicant.

Section 8 of the Act is also relevant here, as it outlines the criteria which need to be fulfilled in order for a request to be deemed ‘valid’ and therefore suitable for processing under the Act.

Section 8(1) of the Act provides:

• In this Act any reference to a “request for information” is a reference to such a request which:

• is in writing,
• states the name of the applicant and an address for correspondence,
• describes the information requested.

Section 84 of the Act clarifies that ‘information’ means ‘information recorded in any form’.

We have considered your submission and have concluded that this part of your request does not concern recorded information and therefore is not valid under Section 8 of the Freedom of Information Act. The Act only extends to requests for recorded information. It does not require public authorities to respond to requests that ask for an opinion.

Questions 2 & 3

A search has been conducted on our crime and incident recording system (Niche RMS) for all occurrences recorded between 1^st January 2015 and 1^st January 2025 that contain the key terms ‘Black Magic’ or ‘witchcraft’ within the occurrence summary field where ‘South Wales’ has been selected as the owning agency.

Each of these occurrences have been individually interrogated in order to establish their relevance.

This search retrieved 0 results.

Please note that this data has been gathered by searching our records management system for offences containing the key terms Black Magic or witchcraft in the relevant time period. The results retrieved are dependent on how the information has been entered onto the system. As such, the information provided should not be considered statistically accurate and/or definitive and therefore, care should be taken when using this data for any further statistical, analytical or evaluative purposes.