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Missing Persons (36A/22)

Request

I am looking at 2019, 2020 and 2021 data and would appreciate it if you could provide the data for each separate year.

Missing persons

  1. How many persons were reported missing during 2019, 2020, 2021? what percentage were Men, Women and Children? (please provide data for each individual year)
  2. How many of the reported missing person cases were resolved (person found) during 2019, 2020, 2021? (please provide data for each individual year)

Resolved cases

  1. How many cases were resolved within the first month, within three months, within six months and within nine months from the date they were reported missing during 2019, 2020, 2021 (please provide data for each individual year)

Staff absences

  1. How many Police Officers were reported absent due to sickness NOT relating to COVID-19 during 2019, 2020, 2021 (please provide data for each individual year)
  2. How many Police Officers were absent due to self-isolation relating to COVID-19 during 2020, 2021 (please provide data for each individual year)
  3. How many Police Staff were absent due to self-isolation relating to COVID-19 during 2020, 2021 (please provide data for each individual 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 36A_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 Resolved cases question 1, Unfortunately, this cannot be achieved through any search data in the breakdown that is asked for, without manually reviewing each individual record. Such a review however would involve the examination of more than 35,000 reports and this would far 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:

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

Attachments

36A_22_attachment