Coronavirus – Charges under Coronavirus Act (62A/20)
Request
Could you please provide details of every case charged under the Coronavirus Act 2020 from the date the Act came into force until the most recent date for which figures are available.
In each case could you please provide the offences charged and the outcome.
Could you please indicate whether any of these cases have been, or are being reviewed, and, where they have been, provide details of the outcome.
Response
Please be advised that the information that you have requested is not available in a readily retrievable format.
Our data are not organised in a centrally retrievable format to allow us to provide this information within the appropriate (cost) limit under the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act, as individuals would be arrested for the substantive offence rather than failing to comply with the requirements imposed under the Coronavirus Act (for example Breach of the peace). Therefore each arrest record would need to located and retrieved for this time period and the summary read to see if it contains mention of the Coronavirus Act. Such a search however would exceed the appropriate limit (FOIA, s.12).
Therefore this means that the cost of providing you with the information is above the amount to which we are legally required to respond i.e. the cost of locating and retrieving the information exceeds the ‘appropriate level’ as stated in the Freedom of Information (Fees and Appropriate Limit) Regulations 2004.
In accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000, this email acts as a Refusal Notice for this part of the request and if one part of a request exceeds the fees limit then S12 of the Act applies to the whole request.
I am unable to suggest any practical way in which your request may be modified in order to satisfy your query or bring it within the 18 hours stipulated by the Regulations.
Further information on section 12 of FOI is available here:
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