DVPO’s and DVPN’s (13A/20)
Request
Can you please provide the following information:
- How many Domestic Violence Protection Notices (DVPNs) were issued per year in: 2016; 2017; 2018; 2019; 2020 (to date);
- How many DVPNs were breached per year in: 2016; 2017; 2018; 2019; 2020 (to date);
- How many Domestic Violence Protection Orders (DVPOs) were granted per year in: 2016; 2017; 2018; 2019; 2020 (to date);
- How many DVPOs were breached per year in: 2016; 2017; 2018; 2019; 2020 (to date).
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.
REASON FOR DECISION
Please note that researching each individual case would exceed the appropriate limit (FOIA, s.12). We have only been accurately recording this data since February 2019, in order to locate and retrieve data prior to that would involve a manual search and this would exceed the FOI time limit.
Please note we have included some data from October 2018 to January 2019 which we have been able to retrieve but please bear in mind this data may not be totally accurate.
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: