FOI 543/25

REQUEST

a) The number of cases with a 'CSE flag' applied for the calendar years 2020 - 2024.

b) A breakdown by ethnicity of perpetrators for those cases applied a CSE flag.

c) The number of “live” group-based CSE investigations led by your force for the years 2020 - 2024, including those progressing through the criminal justice system. “Group based”, in this context, means those crimes involving two or more offenders. If possible, broken down by the number of individuals in each “group”/gang.

d) The number of safeguarding referrals received 2020 - 2024 for children because of sexual exploitation concerns.

e) The number of Child Abduction Warning Notices (CAWN) issued to adults 2014 - 2025, and a breakdown by ethnicity of those presented with one.

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.  

At South Wales Police we monitor and collate statistical data on crimes, incidents and other data relevant to our daily business. The predominant purpose of this is to identify pattern and trends, so resource allocation and policies can be managed to ensure public safety. The data you have requested is not routinely collated in a format that would easily answer your query.   

A search has been completed using our crime and incident reporting system (NICHE RMS) between 01/01/20 –and 31/12/24, 513 occurrences relating to Child Sexual Abuse and 34 occurrences relating to Child Sexual Exploitation were recorded.

We estimate that it would take approximately 5 minutes to interrogate each occurrence to identify whether it was in fact ‘group based’ and if so, how many were involved.  

We therefore estimate it would take in excess of 45 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. If you were to remove question c), then we may be able to assist with your request.