Weapons In Schools (1388A/22)
Request
Could you please supply me with the following information concerning the numbers of weapons seized from pupils in schools and the nature of these weapons, as outlined below:
Q1. How many weapons were seized from schools in the area covered by your constabulary in the years 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021?
Q2. What category of weapon were these and how many of each were there? Eg. 2 knives, 3 guns, 1 sword etc
Q3. How old were the pupils who the weapons were seized from?
Q4. How many of these incidents resulted in pupils being excluded from school?
Q5. How many of these incidents resulted in criminal prosecution for the pupils?
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 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).
In relation to question 1, we cannot distinguish whether a weapon was seized on the school grounds or after the fact at a different location.
For question 3, we are unable to determine whether an individual was a pupil, member of staff or someone else.
We would need to conduct a manual review of all relevant information in order to locate and retrieve this information, this search would exceed the FOI time limit.
We do not hold information in relation to question 4.
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.