Theft of Vaping products (773A/23)
Request
The number of crimes and thefts related to vaping products in convenience stores and
supermarkets.
I believe there is a strong public interest for this information to be published due to a
potential link between the popularity of vapes and the impact on the safety and wellbeing of
business owners.
Please can you supply the following information:
- The number of businesses who were victims of vaping-related crimes for the periods of January 2022 – April 2022 and January 2023 and April 2023.
- The key search terms I am seeking in relation to the type of business are; convenience store, corner shop, grocery store, supermarket, newsagent, symbol group, tobacconist, off licence and independent retailer.
- The key terms I am seeking in relation to the crime are theft, robbery, ram raid, assault, burglary, disposable vape, vape, Elfbar, Elf Bar, Lost Mary, IVG and SKE Crystal.
- Could you also provide the name the affected businesses traded under and their address?
Ideally, I would like these figures broken down month-on-month.
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).
Every recorded crime for theft, robbery, ram raid, assault, burglary would need to be individually assessed to see if they related to your information request.
The terms, convenience store, corner shop, grocery store, supermarket, newsagent, symbol group, tobacconist, off licence and independent retailer are not recorded as a mandatory searchable field. These locations would be recorded as Theft from shop / store for example. Again, this result in an individual read of each crime to assess its location, which often is not recorded in the format you have stated.
Keyword searches for disposable vape, vape, Elfbar, Elf Bar, Lost Mary, IVG and SKE Crystal are notoriously unreliable, the reasons why searches using this method are not reliable include (but are not limited to) the following: –
- a) Searches rely on the keywords being spelt correctly with no grammatical errors
- b) Searches rely on the keywords actually being mentioned in the summary description of the record – if they are mentioned anywhere else within the record but not in the summary, then they will not feature in any results.
I am unable to suggest any practical way in which your request may be modified in order to satisfy your query or bring it within the 18 hours stipulated by the Regulations. I am however willing to consider any refinements that you are able to make to your request, in accordance with Section 16 of the Freedom of Information Act. If you would like to look into refining your request please contact me.
Attachments
Include attachments here