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Cuckooing offences (736A/23)

Request

I am writing to you under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to request the following information:
(1) The total number of cases of “cuckooing”, monthly from April 2019 to March 2023, broken down monthly and by local authority

(2) The total number of cases of “cuckooing”, monthly from April 2019 to March 2023, broken down monthly and by type of tenancy (i.e. owner/occupier, social rent, private rent)

 

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).

 

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. I am however willing to consider any refinements that you are able to make to your request, in accordance with Section 16 of the Freedom of Information Act.  If you would like to look into refining your request please contact me.

 

 

REASON FOR DECISION

 

Please note that researching each individual case would exceed the appropriate limit (FOIA, s.12 (1)). There is no Cuckooing marker on our system and would potentially be classed as another / other crimes if discovered. We would have to evaluate every crime to locate this information. We have thousands of recorded crimes reported each month. Also, to drill down further to the tenancy type (if recorded – as this is not a mandatory field) exceeds the cost.

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 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:

 

https://www.app.college.police.uk/app-content/information-management/freedom-of-information/#fees-and-charges

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