FOI 672/25

REQUEST

 

I would be grateful if you could provide the following data, ideally covering the past five years. If five years of data is not available, the most recent two years will suffice: 

 

1. The number of reported tool thefts, broken down by: 

• Theft from vehicles 

• Theft from residences 

• Theft from workplaces 
  Please include this data by postcode area, if possible. 
  
  

1. For thefts from vehicles: 

• The make and model of the vehicles targeted 

• The number of offences associated with each make and model 
  
  

1. The time of day and day of the week when these offences occurred, segmented by theft location (vehicle, residence, workplace). 
   
   

1. The recorded outcomes of these offences, including: 

• Whether the tools were recovered 

• Whether an arrest was made 

• Whether the case resulted in no further action 
  
  
  

1. Monthly breakdown of tool thefts over the requested time period. 
   
   
   

1. Number of tool theft offences by postcode area. 
   
   
   

1. A breakdown of the types or categories of tools stolen, and the number of incidents involving each type. 

 

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.

 

 

The data you have requested is not routinely collated in the format that would easily answer your query, there is no specific offence category of tool theft. A search has been conducted on our crime and incident recording system (Niche RMS) under the occurrence type ‘Theft & Handling’, this search retrieved in excess of 28,000 results in the last two years alone.

 

We estimate that it would take approximately 5-10 minutes to manually interrogate each occurrence to establish if they relate to tool theft and to then further interrogate the results to provide the level of detail requested.

 

We therefore estimate it would take in excess of 2,333 hours to comply with your request.

 

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.