FOI 725/25

REQUEST

1 In what year did your force start recording non-crime hate incidents?

2 Please provide any document laying out the policy for recording such incidents?

3 Please provide any email or document instructing your force to record such incidents, from for example the Home Office, Association of Chief Police Officers etc?

4 In each of the years your force has recorded such incidents, how many have been recorded in each year?

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.

The information you have requested for question 3 is not recorded in an easily retrievable format. This request covers a range of correspondence and documentation which could potentially be held across multiple departments over an extended time frame. There is no easily retrievable way to extract the requested information without a substantial manual review of individual emails and documents.

Whilst I cannot quantify exactly how long this would take it would most certainly exceed the 18 hours stipulated by the regulations.

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 remove question 3, we may be able to assist you with the remainder of your request. You may wish to submit question 3 to the NPCC (National Police Chiefs Council) and/or the College of Policing who may be able to assist.