Dangerous Dogs (947A/23)
Request
1. How many dogs were seized by your force in the last ten years? Please list by breed, if known, and reason for the seizure.
– Please break down the data by calendar year: 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023 to date.
2. How many dogs were destroyed by your force in the last ten years? Please list by breed, if known, and reason for the destruction.
– Please break down the data by calendar year: 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023 to date.
3. How many people died after being attacked by a dog in your area in the last ten years? Please list by breed, if known, and the age of the victim.
– Please break down the data by calendar year: 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023 to date.
4. How many dog attacks did you record in your area in the past ten years? Please list by breed, if known, and the age of the victim.
– Please break down the data by calendar year: 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023 to date.
5. In the last ten years, how many people have been arrested for breeding or selling a banned dog breed under the dangerous dogs act?
– Please break down the data by calendar year: 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023 to date.
Response
Our data are not organised in such a way as to allow us to provide all 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 questions 4 and 5 of your request, retrieved before it was realised that the fees limit would be exceeded (see attached file 947A_23_attachment.pdf). Additionally, with regard to questions 1 and 2, some of this information has previously been released and can be found at question 4 of the response published on our website: https://foi.west-midlands.police.uk/dog-attacks-683a-23/
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
Regarding questions 1 and 2 and 3, it is not possible to determine the breeds, reasons, and details of deaths without manually going into each case. However, this would require examining of thousands of records and the time taken to complete this task would far exceed the appropriate limit (FOIA, s.12). Similarly
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: