Overnight detention of children in police custody 13A/22

18 January 2022 | Operational Policing, Investigations and Events

Request

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).

 

In accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000, this letter acts as a Refusal Notice for these parts of the request and if one part of a request exceeds the fees limit then S12 of the Act applies to the whole request

However, In accordance with Section 16 of the Act I have a duty to provide advice and assistance in relation to your request and have provided information requested for the questions shown as this was retrieved during our initial research. This should not be taken as a precedent that additional information would be supplied outside of the time/fees legislation for any subsequent requests

 

1. How does your police force define overnight detention of a child in police custody? If possible, please provide what time does overnight detention begins and ends, and if there is a required minimum number of hours of detention according to your definition?

 

No specific recorded information held. WMP do not have a definition for overnight.

2. How many children (those under 18 at the time of detention) were detained overnight (for 4 or more hours between the hours of 0000 and 0800) in police custody? If possible, please provide a breakdown of these children by their age, sex, ethnic origin, national origin, type of disability and type of crime.

 

Section 12 exemption applied: We would need to manually examine 2309 custody records. At 10 mins per examination, that’s 385 hours of work. The limit for the FOI Act is 18 hours of work.

Arrest warrants

 

3. How many children were detained overnight in police custody following an arrest warrant being issued by a court? If possible, please provide a breakdown of these children by their age, sex, ethnic origin, national origin, type of disability and type of crime.

 

52 warrants not backed for bail were executed between 01/01/21 and 31/12/21 where the person arrested was under 18.

Ethnicity

• Up to 6 April 2021: 3 Afro-Caribbean / 1 Arab / 1 Asian / 6 White-European
• From 7 April 2021: 3 Black or Black-Caribbean / 1 Mixed White & Black-Caribbean / 27 Unknown / 7 White British / 3 White Other

Gender

• 44 male / 6 female / 2 unknown gender

Age

• 23 aged 17 / 16 aged 16 / 7 aged 15 / 5 aged 14 / 1 aged 13

Nationality

• From 7 April 2021: 31 British / 2 Romanian

 

We cannot retrieve national origin or disability, the information is not in a retrievable format.

We also cannot do type of crime, as the arrest reason is the warrant itself, not the offence for which the Court was trying them.

4. Can you provide details of the detention period for those children detained overnight in police custody following an arrest warrant being issued by a court (Question 3)? If possible, please provide the day of the week at the time of arrest, how long they were detained for, and during which hours of the day.

 

To calculate detention times would necessitate a manual examination of 52 custody records. This together with the search required in Question 2 has resulted in this information being exempt due to cost, Section 12 FOI Act.

Pre-charge detention

 

5. How many children detained overnight in police custody were detained pre-charge? If possible, please provide a breakdown of these children by their age, sex, ethnic origin, national origin, type of disability and type of crime

 

All children in police custody are – by the nature of them being in police custody – detained pre-charge.

 

6. How many children detained overnight in police custody were granted pre-charge bail? If possible, please provide a breakdown of these children by their age, sex, ethnic origin, national origin, type of disability and type of crime.

 

This information is not stored in a retrievable format.

Section 12 exemption applied: We would need to manually examine 2309 custody records. At 10 mins per examination, that’s 385 hours of work. The limit for the FOI Act is 18 hours of work.

7. How many children detained overnight in police custody were granted pre-charge conditional bail? If possible, please provide a breakdown of these children by their age, sex, ethnic origin, national origin, type of disability and type of crime.

 

This information is not stored in a retrievable format.

 

Section 12 exemption applied: We would need to manually examine 2309 custody records. At 10 mins per examination, that’s 385 hours of work. The limit for the FOI Act is 18 hours of work.

 

8. How many children detained overnight in police custody were granted pre-charge unconditional bail? If possible, please provide a breakdown of these children by their age, sex, ethnic origin, national origin, type of disability and type of crime.

 

This information is not stored in a retrievable format.

Section 12 exemption applied: We would need to manually examine 2309 custody records. At 10 mins per examination, that’s 385 hours of work. The limit for the FOI Act is 18 hours of work.

9. How many children detained overnight in police custody were denied pre-charge bail? If possible, please provide a breakdown of these children by their age, sex, ethnic origin, national origin, type of disability and type of crime.

 

This information is not stored in a retrievable format.

Section 12 exemption applied: We would need to manually examine 2309 custody records. At 10 mins per examination, that’s 385 hours of work. The limit for the FOI Act is 18 hours of work.

Post-charge detention

 

10. How many children detained overnight in police custody were detained post-charge? If possible, please provide a breakdown of these children by their age, sex, ethnic origin, national origin, type of disability and type of crime.

 

This information is not stored in a retrievable format.

Section 12 exemption applied: We would need to manually examine 2309 custody records. At 10 mins per examination, that’s 385 hours of work. The limit for the FOI Act is 18 hours of work.

11. How many children detained overnight in police custody were granted post-charge bail? If possible, please provide a breakdown of these children by their age, sex, ethnic origin, national origin, type of disability and type of crime.

 

This information is not stored in a retrievable format.

Section 12 exemption applied: We would need to manually examine 2309 custody records. At 10 mins per examination, that’s 385 hours of work. The limit for the FOI Act is 18 hours of work.

12. How many children detained overnight in police custody were granted post-charge conditional bail? If possible, please provide a breakdown of these children by their age, sex, ethnic origin, national origin, type of disability and type of crime.

 

This information is not stored in a retrievable format.

Section 12 exemption applied: We would need to manually examine 2309 custody records. At 10 mins per examination, that’s 385 hours of work. The limit for the FOI Act is 18 hours of work.

13. How many children detained overnight in police custody were granted post-charge unconditional bail? If possible, please provide a breakdown of these children by their age, sex, ethnic origin, national origin, type of disability and type of crime.

 

This information is not stored in a retrievable format.

Section 12 exemption applied: We would need to manually examine 2309 custody records. At 10 mins per examination, that’s 385 hours of work. The limit for the FOI Act is 18 hours of work.

14. How many children detained overnight in police custody were denied post-charge bail? If possible, please provide a breakdown of these children by their age, sex, ethnic origin, national origin, type of disability and type of crime.

 

This information is not stored in a retrievable format.

Section 12 exemption applied: We would need to manually examine 2309 custody records. At 10 mins per examination, that’s 385 hours of work. The limit for the FOI Act is 18 hours of work.

15. How many children detained overnight in police custody were denied post-charge bail under s38(1)(b)(i) PACE? If possible, please provide a breakdown of these children by their age, sex, ethnic origin, national origin, type of disability and type of crime.

 

This information is not stored in a retrievable format.

Section 12 exemption applied: We would need to manually examine 2309 custody records. At 10 mins per examination, that’s 385 hours of work. The limit for the FOI Act is 18 hours of work.

16. How many children detained overnight in police custody were denied post-charge bail under s38(1)(b)(ii) PACE? If possible, please provide a breakdown of these children by their age, sex, ethnic origin, national origin, type of disability and type of crime.

 

This information is not stored in a retrievable format.

Section 12 exemption applied: We would need to manually examine 2309 custody records. At 10 mins per examination, that’s 385 hours of work. The limit for the FOI Act is 18 hours of work.

Section 38 PACE (Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984) transfers

 

17. How many requests were made under section 38(6) PACE by your police force to a local authority to transfer children detained overnight in police custody post-charge to local authority accommodation? If possible, please provide a breakdown of these children by their age, sex, ethnic origin, national origin, type of disability and type of crime.

 

This information is not stored in a retrievable format.

Section 12 exemption applied: We would need to manually examine 2309 custody records. At 10 mins per examination, that’s 385 hours of work. The limit for the FOI Act is 18 hours of work.

18. How many requests were made under section 38(6) PACE for secure accommodation for children detained overnight in police custody post-charge? If possible, please provide a breakdown of these children by their age, sex, ethnic origin, national origin, type of disability and type of crime.

 

This information is not stored in a retrievable format.

 

Section 12 exemption applied: We would need to manually examine 2309 custody records. At 10 mins per examination, that’s 385 hours of work. The limit for the FOI Act is 18 hours of work.

19. How many children detained overnight in police custody post-charge were transferred to secure accommodation following a request under section 38(6) PACE? If possible, please provide a breakdown of these children by their age, sex, ethnic origin, national origin, type of disability and type of crime.

 

This information is not stored in a retrievable format.

Section 12 exemption applied: We would need to manually examine 2309 custody records. At 10 mins per examination, that’s 385 hours of work. The limit for the FOI Act is 18 hours of work.

20. How many children detained overnight in police custody post-charge were not transferred to secure accommodation following a request under section 38(6) PACE? If possible, please provide a breakdown of these children by their age, sex, ethnic origin, national origin, type of disability and type of crime.

 

This information is not stored in a retrievable format.

Section 12 exemption applied: We would need to manually examine 2309 custody records. At 10 mins per examination, that’s 385 hours of work. The limit for the FOI Act is 18 hours of work.

21. How many requests were made under section 38(6) PACE for non-secure accommodation for children detained overnight in police custody post-charge? If possible, please provide a breakdown of these children by their age, sex, ethnic origin, national origin, type of disability and type of crime.

 

This information is not stored in a retrievable format.

Section 12 exemption applied: We would need to manually examine 2309 custody records. At 10 mins per examination, that’s 385 hours of work. The limit for the FOI Act is 18 hours of work.

 

22. How many children detained overnight in police custody post-charge were transferred to non-secure accommodation following a request under section 38(6) PACE? If possible, please provide a breakdown of these children by their age, sex, ethnic origin, national origin, type of disability and type of crime.

 

This information is not stored in a retrievable format.

Section 12 exemption applied: We would need to manually examine 2309 custody records. At 10 mins per examination, that’s 385 hours of work. The limit for the FOI Act is 18 hours of work.

23. How many children detained overnight in police custody post-charge were not transferred to non-secure accommodation following a request under section 38(6) PACE? If possible, please provide a breakdown of these children by their age, sex, ethnic origin, national origin, type of disability and type of crime.

 

This information is not stored in a retrievable format.

Section 12 exemption applied: We would need to manually examine 2309 custody records. At 10 mins per examination, that’s 385 hours of work. The limit for the FOI Act is 18 hours of work.

24. How many certificates of impracticability were produced by your police force to a court in relation to children detained overnight in police custody post-charge, pursuant to section 38(7) PACE? If possible, please provide a breakdown of these children by their age, sex, ethnic origin, national origin, type of disability and type of crime.

 

This information is not stored in a retrievable format.

Section 12 exemption applied: We would need to manually examine 2309 custody records. At 10 mins per examination, that’s 385 hours of work. The limit for the FOI Act is 18 hours of work.

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