Domestic Abuse (363A/22)
Request
I would like to know the total amount of domestic abuse incidents, or incidents flagged as domestic abuse, your police force recorded for 2018/19, 2019/20 and 2020/21, and of these incidents, I would like to know how many involved the use of 1) restorative justice and 2) community resolution.
Regarding the number of domestic abuse incidents recorded / flagged domestic abuse in the years outlined above which involved the use of restorative justice, I would like to know the level of restorative justice that was used for these individual instances, in line with the Association of Chief Police Officers definition. (According to the ACPO definition, restorative justice can either be level one, level two or level three).
In particular, I would like to know regarding the number of domestic abuse incidents recorded / incidents flagged as domestic abuse, which involved restorative justice, were classed as Level 1. (Level 1 is defined as, by the ACPO, as “An instant or on-street disposal where police officers or PCSOs use restorative skills to resolve conflict in the course of their duties”.
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).
However, 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 attached file 363A_22_attachment.pdf). 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
In 2019 Remedi took the contract by the West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner, to provide Restorative Justice (RJ) for the West Midlands Police force area (figures attached). We as the Police however, have retained some trained RJ staff within the force and some crime RJ will be completed by them following referrals whereby a crime may not have been recorded prior to referral.
Attached are figures for the Birmingham RJ team from 2019, which may include some from other areas of the force, but all figures are not kept in one place. Therefore, in order to get complete figures, we would need to conduct a manual search of systems. Such a search however would exceed the appropriate limit (FOIA, s.12). Additionally, no figures are available prior to 2019, without similarly undertaking a search of systems that would also exceed the appropriate limit (FOIA, s.12).
This means that 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.
Further information on section 12 of FOI is available here: