Stolen Vehicles (1078A/23)
Request
- Total number of stolen vehicles recorded in the period 2020-2022
- Total number of vehicle thefts involving a caravan in the period 2020-2022
- Total number of vehicle thefts involving a van in the period 2020-2022
- The number of stolen vehicles recovered in the period 2020-2022 (and if possible these figures broken down by car, van, and caravan)
- If possible could I also request the total number of vehicle thefts involving keyless entry
Response
Our data are not organised in such a way as to allow us to provide all of 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 question 1 of your request, retrieved before it was realised that the fees limit would be exceeded (see attached file 1078A_23_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
With regard to questions 2, 3, 4 and 5, it is not possible to determine this information without manually going into and reading through the case notes of every Theft of a motor vehicle/Unauthorised taking of a motor vehicle offence recorded over the past three years. However, this would require an examination of more than 30,000 individual cases and such a search would be a huge undertaking, far exceeding 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: