FOI 592/25
REQUEST
Please can the information be broken down for each year between January 2020 - April 2025:
1) How many cases have been recorded by your force between January 2020 and April 2025 for the following offences:
- disclosing, threatening to disclose, private sexual photographs and films with or without intent to cause distress
- Sharing or threatening to share intimate photograph or film
- Voyeurism
2) Can you provide any further information about these cases and include the outcome of each case in 1)?
3) The number of cases involving threats to share intimate photographs or films in which alleged victims were unwilling or unable to contribute to police efforts to prosecute the alleged offender, between January 2020 and April 2025.
Can you include the outcome and/or reason why the alleged victim did not continue with police efforts to prosecute the alleged offender.
4) The number of convictions and outcomes made each year between 2020 - 2025 for the following offences:
- disclosing, threatening to disclose, private sexual photographs and films with or without intent to cause distress
- Sharing or threatening to share intimate photograph or film
- Voyeurism
5) The number of convictions involving threats to share intimate photographs or films by repeat offenders.
Can you include the outcome for each conviction
6) The number of reports of threats to share photographs or films which show, or appear to show, someone in an intimate state - This would be a breach of Section 188(4) of the Online Safety Act 2023
Can you include the outcome of each report
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 conducted on our crime and incident recording system (Niche RMS) for all occurrences recorded during the specified time frame, using the following Home Office codes:
- 175/175/08/SX03249: Share photograph or film of person in intimate state without consent
- 88/88/15/SX03250: Share photograph or film of person in intimate state intending to cause alarm distress or humiliation
- 88E/88/10/SX03130: Voyeurism (SOA 2003 S67)
This search retrieved 467 occurrences. To determine why the victim did not support prosecution each occurrence would need to be manually interrogated.
We estimate that it would take approximately 3-4 minutes to interrogate each occurrence. We therefore estimate it would take in excess of 27 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 remove the part of the question referring to, ‘reason why the alleged victim did not continue with police efforts to prosecute the alleged offender’, then we may be able to assist with your request.
Furthermore, South Wales Police do not hold information regarding convictions. You may wish to submit this part of your request to the HM Courts & Tribunals Service using the link provided below:
How to make a freedom of information (FOI) request: Overview - GOV.UK