FOI 870/25

Request

- How many traffic collisions have there been where nitrous oxide has been involved per year?

Please provide data separately for each year: 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024. Please provide as much data for 2025 as possible closest to the current day. 
 
- How many of those traffic collisions involving nitrous oxide have resulted in one or more fatalities? Please specify how many for each incident. 

- How many arrests have been recorded for the illegal sale of nitrous oxide from the start of 2019 to the 2nd of July 2025?

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.

We consulted with our Motoring Unit who have advised the information you have requested is not recorded in an easily retrievable format. There is no specific category within our recording system that captures ‘nitrous oxide’. To retrieve this information would require a manual interrogation of all RTC’s (Road Traffic Collisions) during the requested time frame to establish if ‘nitrous oxide’ was involved or whether there were any fatalities.

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. Unfortunately, due to the way in which data is recorded, we can see no feasible way in which you could refine your request.