Dangerous Dogs Act (199A/22)
Request
This is an information request relating to the seizure of dogs under the provisions of the Dangerous Dogs Act (1991).
Please include the information for each of the following periods; 2016-17, 2017-18, 2018-19, 2019-20, 2020-21:
- The annual cost to the police force for seizing dogs under the Dangerous Dogs Act (1991) broken down by the cost of kennelling, the cost of veterinary treatment, and the cost of destroying the dogs
- The number of dogs seized under the act per year
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 of 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 your request, retrieved before it was realised that the fees limit would be exceeded (see attached file 199A_22_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 question 1, although we have been able to provide total costs with regard the seizure of dangerous dogs (see attached), it is not possible to separately identify each element of these costs as requested, without undertaking a manual trawl of all associated records. This however would be a huge undertaking and such a search would exceed the appropriate limit (FOIA, s.12).
Additionally, with regard to question 2, from 2018 onwards, figures on our system include all dogs subject to recording as a matrix “non seizure”, so aren’t actually formally seized but the details are recorded by handlers and logged on our database. As these can be finalised in several different ways such as NFA, PCR, Caution etc, it is not possible to say how many were actually seized without undertaking a manual review of each record. Such a search would similarly exceed 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: