FOI 710/25

REQUEST

Under the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, I am writing to request the following information:

1. How many multi-agency exercises have been conducted by your organisation within the last 3 years (1st May 2022 to 30th April 2025 inclusive).

2. What proportion of these multi-agency exercises were:
3. Tabletop / Scenario Based
4. Live Exercises

iii. Other (please state).

3. Please detail how post-exercise findings are fed back into the organisation and how any changes to policies and procedures are implemented as a result of this feedback.

4. What proportion of multi-agency exercises in the last 3 years:
5. Involved more than two CCA 2004 category one responder organisations (please detail) ii. Involved CCA 2004 category two responders (please detail) iii. Involved organisations from the voluntary and faith based sectors (please detail).

5. Please detail how the aims and objectives of the exercise are determined and communicated to the parties involved.

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 – Exemption where cost of compliance exceeds appropriate limit. 

We have consulted with our Force Operations and Planning Department who have stated that from a Casualty Collection and Reception Unit (CCRU) perspective we do not collate such information and do not hold this information within Force Planning.

To obtain this information from other departments such as Counter Terrorism Policing (CTP), Joint Firearms Unit (JFU), Driver Training and Specialist Operations etc would take an excessive amount of time to retrieve the detailed information you have requested.

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.