2022/25248 - Different Home Office Offence Groups

REQUEST

1/ The annual number of a) offences and b) charges and court summons for different Home Office offence groups broken down by the location of the incident in either i) rural areas or ii) all areas within the force's jurisdiction in 2016 and 2021.

The offence groups forces are obligated to record are detailed here (e.g. violence against the person, sexual offences):

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/977202/count-offence-classification-index-apr-2021.pdf

Please state clearly if the force does not have rural areas within its jurisdiction but provide the rest of the data (i.e., parts a and b for ii).

2/ The number of officers who are stationed in rural areas for each year from 2015 to 2021 inclusive. This refers to the number of officers stationed (i.e., their principle base) in rural police stations. Ideally please provide their rank, but only if easily possible within the response timeframe.

RESPONSE

1/ The annual number of a) offences and b) charges and court summons for different Home Office offence groups broken down by the location of the incident in either i) rural areas or ii) all areas within the force's jurisdiction in 2016 and 2021.

The offence groups forces are obligated to record are detailed here (e.g. violence against the person, sexual offences):

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/977202/count-offence-classification-index-apr-2021.pdf

Please state clearly if the force does not have rural areas within its jurisdiction but provide the rest of the data (i.e., parts a and b for ii).

An excel has been attached with the data requested.

There is no filter to determine whether an offence took place in a ‘rural’ or ‘urban’ area, and so a breakdown by Local Policing Authority has been provided instead. Data is only held from 2017 – 2021. The number of offences is based off the number of recorded offences.

The second table for each year shows the number of charges, summonses, or postal requisitions. Please note that outcome data is completely dependent on what the officer had inputted into the system as it is a manual process. If this data has not been updated on the system, then this information would not be correct. 

2/ The number of officers who are stationed in rural areas for each year from 2015 to 2021 inclusive. This refers to the number of officers stationed (i.e., their principle base) in rural police stations. Ideally please provide their rank, but only if easily possible within the response timeframe.

Unfortunately, we cannot disclose information on how many staff members are based Police stations, by virtue of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 s31(1) Law Enforcement:

Evidence of Harm

To disclose the number of staff working in a specific location could cause harm to the Police service’s ability to protect the public it serves and could prejudice its ability to perform core functions such as the prevention and detection of crime. Releasing refined data on staffing levels could provide individuals with criminal intent the intelligence required to disrupt police activity and target innocent members of the public. People with criminal intent could use the data to help increase criminal activity around the county and country as a whole.  The disclosure of information which is likely to undermine the Police service’s ability to serve the public in preventing and detecting crime can only be considered as being harmful to the public.

Factors Favouring Disclosure

The disclosure of this information would adhere to the general principle of openness and transparency and better inform the public about how public funds are spent, better awareness which may reduce crime or lead to more information from the public.

Factors Favouring Non-Disclosure

The disclosure of this information would undermine law enforcement resulting in more crime being committed. This would have an impact on Police resources and place individuals and the general public at risk. Patterns could be drawn which would enable those intent on criminal activities to strategically plan offences based on this data. The force would then be required to adapt its methods in order to continue to prevent and detect crime.

Balancing Test

The Police Service is tasked with enforcing the law and protecting the community we serve and there is a public interest argument in ensuring we are open and transparent. However, the disclosure of police resources which would harm the ability of Gwent Police to prevent and detect crime is a more influential reason. It is therefore my opinion that the balance lies in favour of non-disclosure of the information at this time.