Drug Possession/Intent to Supply (577A/23)
Request
For the calendar years 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018 – can you please tell me:
- How many arrests were made by your force for drugs possession? (not intent to supply, possession only). How many arrests were foreign nationals – and can you list the nationalities?
- What age was the youngest person arrested for possession?
- How many were charged in relation to question 1?
- How many arrests were made by your force for being in possession of drugs with intent to supply? How many arrests were foreign nationals – and can you list the nationalities?
- What age was the youngest person arrested for being in possession with intent to supply?
- How many were charged in relation to question 4?
Response
Please find attached (577A_23_attachment.pdf). Please note, nationality titles in tables 2, 3, 6, 7, 9, 10, 13 and 14 have been presented exactly as recorded. However, due to system/recording changes, titles differ across the period but should be taken as referring to the same nationality (e.g. Albanian and Albania) and their figures combined.
Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from a number of data sources used by forces for police purposes. The detail collected to respond specifically to your request is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large scale recording system. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when interpreting those data.
The figures provided therefore are our best interpretation of relevance of data to your request, but you should be aware that the collation of figures for ad hoc requests may have limitations and this should be taken into account when those data are used.
If you decide to write an article / use the enclosed data we would ask you to take into consideration the factors highlighted in this document so as to not mislead members of the public or official bodies, or misrepresent the relevance of the whole or any part of this disclosed material.