FOI 483/25

REQUEST 

I would like to know, between the years 2014 and 2024, how many Motability vehicles were seized by your police force after they were used, or they were suspected to have been used, in criminal activity. Could you please break down the statistics by year, eg, how many in 2014;  2015… If possible, could you also please provide a breakdown of the nature of each offence involving Motability vehicles. Eg, theft; assault.

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.

Whilst our crime recording systems are fairly sophisticated and they contain a number of designated field in which we record specific information about a crime, we do not have dedicated field in which we record if a vehicle is registered under the Motability Scheme.

In order to retrieve this information we would have to manually interrogate all crimes recorded within the requested time frame to establish if a vehicle was involved, then further interrogate to establish in the vehicle was registered under the Motability scheme. Furthermore, this information may not even be recorded.

There were 109,328 crimes recorded in the South Wales area in the year 2024 alone. Whilst I cannot quantify how long it would take to manually review these occurrences to retrieve the requested information, 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. Unfortunately, due to the way in which data is recorded, we can see no feasible way in which you could refine your request.