FOI 583/25

REQUEST

This is a request for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Please share the following information for each police station in your force.

Q1. How many reports of rape and sexual offences were there with an identified suspect?

Q2. Of the reports of rape and sexual offences with an identified suspect, please share the outcome of each case. For example, no further action, referred to the CPS.

Q3. Of the reports of rape and sexual offences with an identified suspect (identified in Q1), how many identified suspects were interviewed? Please share the number of cases rather than the number of identified suspects interviewed. 

Q4. Of the reports of rape and sexual offences with an identified suspect (identified in Q1), how many victims were interviewed? Please share the number of cases rather than the number of victims interviewed. 

Please may I have information for over the past 5 years, from 1 January 2020

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 conducted a search on our crime and incident recording system (NICHE RMS) for all rape and sexual offences over the requested time period. This search retrieved 18,632 results.

We estimate it would take two to three minutes to interrogate each offence to see if the suspect and victim had been interviewed.

We therefore estimate it would take in excess of 766 hours to retrieve the information requested.

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 3 and 4, we may be able to assist with your request.