FOI 1164/26
REQUEST
Please provide the following recorded crime data covering the 24-month period from August 1st, 2024, to August 31st, 2026, in an open, structured format (CSV or Excel):
- Total Incident Count: The total number of recorded offences logged under Home Office Offence Classification 045 (Theft from a Motor Vehicle) where the vehicle involved is tagged or logged with a fuel type marker of EV, BEV, PHEV, or Hybrid..
- Component Breakdown (Keyword Search/ Automated System: If available via standard database tag queries or automated keyword searches within crime logs summaries (e.g., "battery", "charging cable", "infotainment", "screen", "inverter", "catalytic converter"), a breakdown of the top stolen components recorded under these offences.
Section 12 Priority Clause
If you estimate that complying with this request in full will exceed the statutory time limit under Section 12 FOIA:
- Prioritise Point 1: Provide the overall total incident count under Offence Classification 045 for EV/PHEV/Hybrids over the requested 24-month period using automated database field queries.
- Omit manual log reviews: If extracting the component breakdown (Point 2) requires manual reading of individual officer text narratives that triggers a Section 12 refusal, please omit Point 2 and provide the automated query results for Point 1.
RESPONSE
Your request for information has now been considered, and I am not obliged to supply the information you have requested.
Section 17(5) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 requires South Wales Police, when refusing to provide such information (because the information is exempt) to provide you the applicant with a notice which:
(a) states that fact,
(b) specifies the exemption in question and
(c) states (if that would not otherwise be apparent) why the exemption applies.
In relation to your request, the following exemption applies:
Section 12(1) – Exemption where cost of compliance exceeds appropriate limit.
A search has been completed using our crime and incident reporting system (Niche RMS) for all offences recorded as
45/10: Theft from a motor vehicle between 1st August 2024 and 31st August 2026. This search retrieved 6745 occurrences.
The data you have requested is not routinely collated in a format that would easily answer your query, therefore to accurately answer your request we would need to interrogate each occurrence to identify whether it is in relation to an electric/hybrid vehicle.
We estimate that it would take 1-2 minutes to interrogate each occurrence. We therefore estimate that it would take over 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. Unfortunately, due to the way in which the data is recorded, we can see no feasible way in which you could refine your request.