Rural/wildlife crime

 

Freedom of information request reference no: 1298/24

REQUEST

1)         Does your force have a designated Rural Crime team?

 

1a)        If so how many personel make up that team

 

2)         How many officers or PCSO staff have received accredited training from the National Wildlife crime unit?

 

3)         How many officers or PCSO staff have received livestock specific training?

 

4)        How many of the following crimes were reported to your force in the 2023 calendar year AND 2024 calendar year so far (up to 10/11/2024)

 

• Theft of quad bike
• Theft of Agricultural machinery
• Theft of Livestock- sheep
• Farm burglary
• Farm arson (agricultural shed or building)
• Reports of Poachers on land
• Reports of Hare coursing
• Reports of fly tipping
• Reports of livestock attacks
• Reports of wildlife crime
• Reports of domestic violence in rural areas

 

In 2024 only:

 

• In relation to the above rural crimes, how many investigations resulted?
• In relation to the above, how many arrests resulted?
• In relation to the above how many prosecutions resulted?

 

Other:

 

5) What budget was your Rural Crime team designated in the 2023 & 2024 calendar year?

 

6) If no rural crime team, do you have a budget allocated in general terms for rural crime prevention?  If so how much was this in the 2023 and 2024 calendar year

CLARIFICATION:

SWP: In relation to question 4 some of this information is not retrievable within fees 18 hour time limit stipulated by the regulations which would apply to the whole request. For example, the number of investigations as a result of the crimes listed would require manual interrogation.

 

Applicant: In relation to question 4, these are the queries of most focus to us at present. 

 

4. How many of the following crimes were reported to your force in the 2023 calendar year AND 2024 calendar year so far (up to 10/11/2024)

 

• Reports of livestock attacks
• Theft of Agricultural machinery
• Reports of Hare coursing
• Reports of fly tipping
• Reports of wildlife crime

 

If you were able to provide information on number of prosecutions for livestock attacks (dog worrying) and machinery thefts (Quads) that would be very welcomed. 

 

SWP: Can you please confirm if you would be happy for us to remove any information that would trigger the 18 hour fees limit so we can provide what information we have retrieved?"

 

Yes, we are agreeable to this. 

RESPONSE

We consulted with our HR department, Finance department, Learning & Development Services and our analysts who have provided the below response to your request.

Question 1 & 1a

South Wales Police have a wildlife crime supervisory police officer coordinator and 5 police officers and 13 PCSO’s who have responsibility for wildlife crime amongst their other duties.

Question 2

Two current Police Officers have attended the national Police Wildlife Crime Officers Course and achieved the national qualification in wildlife crime which is recognised by the College of Policing

Question 3

None (other than that contained in Wildlife Crime Unit Course attended by 2 police officers).

Question 4

In relation to your request for ‘wildlife crime’ a search has been conducted during the requested time frame using our crime and incident recording system (Niche RMS) where the occurrence type was recorded as ‘Animals/wildlife’. These were filtered down to crimes only where a HO (Home Office) code was attached to the occurrence.

Please find attached document entitled ‘Response data 1298_24’.

A property search was also conducted on Niche during the requested time frame under the property type ‘Machinery or tools’ and description type ‘Agricultural machinery or tools’ classed as stolen. This search retrieved 5 results.

A separate property search was conducted for stolen vehicles recorded as ‘quad bikes’ during the requested time frame. This search retrieved 17 results.

Please note: This search will only retrieve results entered as property on Niche. A different search would likely retrieve different results. These are not official South Wales Police figures and therefore, care should be taken when using them for evaluative or comparison purposes.

Unfortunately, we are unable to retrieve any data for crimes of ‘livestock attacks’, ‘Hare coursing’ or ‘fly tipping’. There are no HO codes for us to search on as these are not classed as notifiable offences.

Under Section 16 our duty to advise and assist you may wish to submit your request in relation to ‘fly tipping’ to your relevant local authorities who may be able to assist.

Any prosecution data in relation to this question will be held by the CPS, you may wish to submit this part of your request to them using the link below:

Freedom of Information | The Crown Prosecution Service (cps.gov.uk)

Question 5

Year	Budget
2023	£643,711
2024	£710,490

 

Question 6

N/A