FOI 1172/26

REQUEST

 

Please provide the following information relating to football-related discrimination or hate incidents recorded by your force between 1 January 2022 and 24 September 2026.

 

For the purposes of this request, football-related incidents are those recorded as occurring in connection with a football match, football event, football supporter activity, or otherwise flagged as football-related by the force.

 

1. Football-related discrimination incidents reported

For each of the following periods:

• 2022
• 2023
• 2024
• 2025
• 2026 (year-to-date)

 

Please provide:

1. a) The total number of football-related discrimination or hate incidents reported to the force.
2. b) Where recorded and retrievable within the appropriate cost limit, a breakdown of incidents by:

• Racism
• Religious discrimination (including antisemitism and Islamophobia)
• Homophobia
• Transphobia
• Disability discrimination
• Sexism
• Other discrimination-related incidents

1. c) The total number of arrests made in connection with these incidents.
2. d) Whether incidents are recorded as occurring:

• Inside a football stadium
• Outside a football stadium
• Online or on social media

Where this information is recorded and retrievable within the appropriate cost limit, please provide a numerical breakdown for each year.

1. e) Where held electronically and retrievable within the appropriate cost limit, the football match associated with each reported football-related discrimination incident and/or arrests.

 

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(1) – Exemption where cost of compliance exceeds appropriate limit. 

  

A search has been completed using our crime and incident reporting system (Niche RMS) for all Hate crimes recorded between 1^st January 2022 and 25^th September 2026. This search retrieved 15584 occurrences.

  

We estimate that it would take approximately one minute to interrogate each occurrence to identify whether it is in relation to a football match.

  

We therefore estimate it would take in excess of 18 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. Unfortunately, due to the way in which the data is recorded, we can see no feasible way in which you could refine your request.