Child Neglect (320A/22)
Request
Under the Freedom of Information act 2000 I would like to request the following information –
* The number of child neglect cases reported to West Midlands Police in the past three years, broken down by year – 2019, 2020 and 2021
* Summary of details from each report made to West Midlands Police within that time frame – including what was reported to police, age and gender of child and relationship of suspect to child. If possible the area of the offence would be helpful.
* The outcomes for the cases in 2019, 2020 and 2021
CLARIFICATION
If we could obtain information for the following offences, that would be great.
Attempted – Cruelty to Children / Young Persons – Cruelty to and neglect of children
Cruelty to Children / Young Persons – Abandoning child under two years
Cruelty to Children / Young Persons – Allowing child or young person to be in a brothel
Cruelty to Children / Young Persons – Allowing persons under 16 to take part in performances endangering life or limb
Cruelty to Children / Young Persons – Cruelty to and neglect of children
Cruelty to Children / Young Persons – Exposing child to risk of burning
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.
Please note that due to a major change in West Midlands Police recording systems, 2019 data has been obtained from more than one system and is shown in a separate column.
REASON FOR DECISION
Please note that researching each individual case would exceed the appropriate limit (FOIA, s.12). We are unable to provide relationship of suspect to child as this would require a manual review and would exceed the FOI time limit. In addition a summary of details from each report would be exempt under S40 – Personal Data.
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.