Missing People (478A/20)
Request
- The number of people who have been reported missing to this force during the calendar year of 2017-2018, 2018-2019, 2019-2020?
- The number of people reported missing who were then found during the calendar year of 2017-2018, 2018-2019, 2019-2020?
- Can this be broken down by gender please?
- Can this be broken down by ethnicity please?
- Can this be broken down by each age range from 0-10, 10-20, 20-30, 30-40, 40-50, 50-60, 60-70, 70+, please?
- The number of people who have been reported as missing to this force during the lockdown period from 23rd March 2020 – 4th July 2020?
- The number of people reported missing who were then found during the lockdown period from 23rd March 2020 – 4th July 2020?
- Can this be broken down by gender please?
- Can this be broken down by ethnicity please?
- Can this be broken down by each age range from 0-10, 10-20, 20-30, 30-40, 40-50, 50-60, 60-70, 70+, please?
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 provided information in a format returned by our missing persons’ database. To find the information exactly as requested would well exceed the FOI time limit, and we could not guarantee its’ accuracy. The numbers of missing versus found ‘during calendar year’ is not entirely accurate, missing people do not ‘reset’ or stop going missing across new years’, so to say they’ve all be missing and found in that year is not possible
Please also note: Regarding the gender, ethnicity or age numbers, some information may not have been recorded.
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: