2022/25260 - Bicycles Stolen

REQUEST

 

I would like to know:

 

1) How many bicycles have been reported to the police as stolen from each postcode district in this region from 01/01/18 to now?

2) If possible, information on the bicycle models reported stolen?

3) If possible, information on the stated values of bicycles reported stolen?

4) The number of bicycles successfully returned to their owners from 01/01/18 to now.

 

RESPONSE

 

1) How many bicycles have been reported to the police as stolen from each postcode district in this region from 01/01/18 to now?

 

There were 1471 offences which had a crime category of ‘Bicycle Theft’ within 01/01/2018 – 26/06/22. We are unable to break this figure down by postcode, however, we have been able to break the number down into areas within the force. Please see the table below:

Neighbourhood	Total
Not Stated	2
Blaenau Gwent	87
Caerphilly Central	72
Caerphilly North	47
Caerphilly South	57
Monmouthshire	128
Newport City Centre	336
Newport East	253
Newport West	334
Torfaen	155
Grand Total	1471

 

 

2) If possible, information on the bicycle models reported stolen?

3) If possible, information on the stated values of bicycles reported stolen?

4) The number of bicycles successfully returned to their owners from 01/01/18 to now.

 

Unfortunately, we cannot answer these questions as it will exceed the 18-hour time limit to complete a request. There have been 1471 offences. In order to retrieve the data, each record would need to be reviewed. It would take approximately 3-4 minutes to review each individual record, which would equate to over 70 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.

 

We appreciate that you may be disappointed on this occasion that we are unable to provide the requested information. However, under Section 16 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, we have a duty to assist you in relation to refining your request, where we may be able to answer some of your questions.

 

Please Note:

If you would like to contact this office to discuss this matter further, our contact details are on the accompanying email.

 

FOLLOW UP REQUEST

 

Thank you very much for the information provided.

 

We understand the inability to retrieve the information by postcode and appreciate the format by areas within the police force. 

 

Also, we understand the time taken to answer questions 2-4 is too great, however, is it possible for the information already provided to be broken down by year?

i.e. number of bicycle thefts in Blaenau Gwent in 2018, 2019, 2020 ect. for the other years and police regions.

 

RESPONSE

 

Please see the table below for a breakdown by calendar year.

Neighbourhood	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	Grand Total
Unstated	1	1	0	0	0	2
Caerphilly North	14	9	14	9	1	47
Caerphilly South	16	13	14	11	3	57
Caerphilly Central	23	13	16	12	8	72
Blaenau Gwent	20	25	15	19	8	87
Monmouthshire	28	32	32	27	9	128
Torfaen	41	32	35	24	23	155
Newport East	55	58	57	56	27	253
Newport West	71	100	58	80	25	334
Newport City Centre	101	100	44	69	22	336
Grand Total	370	383	285	307	126	1471