Theft of Motor Vehicle (337A/22)
Request
Please supply the number of reported offence code 48 offences (Theft or unauthorised taking of motor vehicle) for the period 1st January 2021 – 31st December 2021 (inclusive) in your force area.
Please break the total figure down by vehicle body type as defined in DfT transport statistics – i.e. Cars, Motorcycles, Light Goods Vehicles, Heavy Goods Vehicles, Buses and coaches, Other vehicles (Includes rear diggers, lift trucks, rollers, ambulances, Hackney Carriages, three wheelers and agricultural vehicles). Ref DfT statistics: Table VEH0101: Licensed vehicles by body type (quarterly): Great Britain and United Kingdom)
Please also supply the number of reported offence code 44 offences (Theft or unauthorised taking of a pedal cycle) for the period 1st January 2021 – 31st December 2021 (inclusive) in your force area.
Response
Our data are not organised in such a way as to allow us to provide this information within the appropriate (cost) limit within the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act (see ‘Reason for Decision’ below).
Although excess cost removes the force’s obligations under the Freedom of Information Act, as a gesture of goodwill I have supplied information, relative to your request, retrieved before it was realised that the fees limit would be exceeded (see enclosed attached). I trust this is helpful, but it does not affect our legal right to rely on the fees regulations for the remainder of the request.
REASON FOR DECISION
Please note that researching each individual case would exceed the appropriate limit (FOIA, s.12). Currently we cannot answer question 2, as we are unable to break the figures down due to an issue with the software that houses that particular data, therefore a manual search would be required which would exceed the FOI time limit.
The cost of compliance with the whole of your request is above the amount to which we are legally required to respond, i.e. the cost of locating and retrieving the information would exceed the appropriate costs limit under section 12(1) of the FOI Act 2000. For West Midlands Police, the appropriate limit is set at £450, as prescribed by the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004, S.I. 3244.