Theft From Outbuildings (1225A/20)
Request
- How many thefts from domestic outbuildings (e.g. garages, garden sheds, cabins, summerhouses) have been reported in your constabulary over the past three years?
- Please can you provide the number of reports of thefts from domestic outbuildings over the last three years broken down by month?
- Please can you provide a breakdown of the items that have been stolen from gardens and outbuildings over the past year into the following categories?
- Please can you provide the overall estimated total value of items that have been stolen from gardens and outbuildings over the past three years?
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). Property values are often not entered, therefore we would need to conduct a manual search of all relevant records to try and locate and retrieve this information which would exceed the FOI time limit.
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.