2022/25018 - Use of Strip search

REQUEST

I am writing under the Freedom of Information Act to request the below information regarding the use of strip searching by your police force - that is, involving the removal of more than just the suspect’s outer clothing. For each of the years 2021, 2020, 2019, please provide the below information:

1. How many people have been strip searched in your police force area in each of the above years? Please include:
   1. the individual’s age (If you are unable to give exact ages, please use the following brackets: 1-10; 11-14; 15-17; 18+); 
   2. the sex of each of those searched; and
   3. their ethnicity.
2. Please indicate the outcome/result of that search (in terms of whether anything was found, whether action was taken, etc)

1. Please indicate whether an appropriate adult was present during the search, and please indicate cases where an individual declined to have an appropriate adult present

RESPONSE

Section 21 – Information Reasonably Accessible by Other Means

The exemption applicable to the information you have requested for this question can be found at Section 21 of the Act and this refusal notice is issued under Section 17.

I am engaging the Section 21 Exemption under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 – Information Reasonably Accessible by Other Means.

The information you have requested can be found at the attached link below:

2022/24938 - Strip Searches | Gwent Police

Questions 2 & 3 would require a manual search of our records to see if anything was found and if an appropriate adult was used. Due to the number of strip searches each year this would exceed our time limit.

There were 622 strip searches in 2021 alone.

It would take approximately two minutes to review each individual record, which would equate to 20 hours of research. Therefore, a Section 12 Excess Cost exemption has been applied.

Section 12 – Excess Cost

The exemption applicable to the information you have requested for this question can be found at Section 12(1) of the Act and this refusal notice is issued under Section 17.

Section 12(1) “does not oblige a public authority to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying with the request would exceed the appropriate limit.” 

In the case of a police force, the appropriate limit is set at £450, which is calculated at £25 per hour (i.e., 18 hours). Gwent Police would have to conduct a manual search to find and extract the information for this question. This would take more than 18 hours of staff time therefore we are unable to answer this question and the exemption is engaged.