FOI 1174/26

REQUEST

 

Please provide the following information for the period 1 January 2021 to 31 December 2025, broken down by calendar year.

 

1. The total number of spiking incidents reported to your force. Please include both recorded crimes and non-crime incidents and show these separately if possible.

 

2. Of these, the number administered via vape or e-cigarette.

 

3. Of these, the number where the substance involved was recorded or confirmed (for example, by toxicology), broken down by: prescription or over-the-counter medicines, other drugs, and substances not recorded or unknown.

 

4. The number of the incidents in question 1 that resulted in a charge or summons.

 

For this request, "spiking" means any incident recorded using your force's spiking flag, marker or qualifier, or recorded under an offence of administering a substance without consent.

 

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 occurrences recorded between the dates specified using one of the following Home Office Codes:

 

• 5/05: Apply / administer / attempt / cause to be taken a drug e.g. chloroform, with intent to commit an indictable offence
• 5E/5/10: Administer poison with intent to endanger life / inflict grievous bodily harm |
• 8N/8/2: Cause administer poison / noxious thing with intent to injure / aggrieve / annoy
• 24/1: Administer drug to woman to obtain intercourse
• 88C/88/5: Administering a substance with intent to stupefy / overpower to allow sexual activity. (SOA 2003 S61)

 

This search yielded 562 records. In relation to questions 2 and 3 each record will have to be manually interrogated to provide the information you have requested.

We estimate it would take a minimum of 5 minutes to interrogate each occurrence to retrieve the information you have requested.

 

We therefore estimate it would take in excess of 46 hours.

 

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 Qs 2 and 3 we may be able to assist with the remainder of your request.