S59 Warnings (364A/23)
Request
1) Number of warnings issued under section 59 of the Police Reform Act 2002 for the antisocial use of a vehicle.
2) Of those stopped, how many were a) uninsured; b) had no license; c) had previous offences.
3) Number of vehicles seized under section 59 of the Police Reform Act 2002.
I would like all of this data for 2019/20, 2020/21 and 2021/2022 financial years 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).
In relation to question 2c – we don’t hold records of previous traffic offences. We can check previous criminal offences but this would require a review of the Police National Computer of all nominals linked to the S59’s issued, this would involve checking 1,169 records, which at 2 minutes per record would equate to 38 hours.
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.