FOI 1006/25

Request

I am requesting the following information under the Freedom of Information Act. The time period for all questions is 1 July 2024 to 30 July 2025. The location is within your police force’s jurisdiction.

1. How many times were police officers dispatched to incidents at Co-op Group stores (including adjacent areas such as car parks) within your area during this period?
2. Of these incidents, how many:
3. Resulted in an arrest?
4. Involved violence, threats, or abuse directed at retail staff or shop workers?
5. How many reported incidents at Co-op stores during this period were classified as: a. Assault on a shop worker (or equivalent classification)? b. Public order offences involving abuse or threats toward shop staff?
6. If available, how many of these incidents involved a lone worker (i.e. only one member of staff present at the time of the incident)?

If possible, please include any relevant incident codes or classifications used, and clarify any limitations in how this data is recorded.

Clarification

Please find below a simplified FOI request for the period 1 August 2024 to 30 August 2025, within your police force’s jurisdiction:

1. The total number of incidents recorded at Co-op Group stores during this period.
2. Of these, how many involved violence, threats, or abuse directed at retail staff.

If possible, please provide any relevant incident codes or classifications used.

Response

Your request for information has now been considered and I am not obliged to supply the information you have requested.          

In relation to your request, the following exemption applies:   

Section 12 – Exemption where cost of compliance exceeds appropriate limit.

A search has been completed using our crime and incident reporting system (NICHE RMS) for all occurrences reported between 1^st August 2024 and 30^th July 2025 (date when FOI request was received), with the word ‘COOP’ in the ‘Premises Name’ field. This search retrieved 279 occurrences.

We estimate that it would take approximately 4 minutes to interrogate each occurrence to identify whether the incident took place at a COOP store and whether any occurrences involved violence, threats, or abuse directed at retail staff.

We therefore estimate it would take in excess of 18 hours to retrieve the information.   

It is estimated that the cost of providing you with the information is above 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.   

In the case of the police service, the appropriate limit is £450 which has been calculated to equate to a total of 18 hours of work.  

If any part of the request exceeds the fees limit then Section 12 applies to the whole request.  

In accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000, this letter acts as a refusal notice.  

Excess cost removes the forces obligation under the Freedom of Information Act, however under Section 16 – Duty to provide advice and assistance, an authority is required to offer an applicant the opportunity to redefine their request within the cost limit. If you were to reduce the timeframe then we may be able to assist with your request.