Van Thefts (1180A/22)
Request
- The total number of van/Light Commercial Vehicle (LCV) thefts reported between 1 September 2021 and 31 August 2022, as well as for the previous year between 1 September 2020 and 31 August 2021. Please provide the numbers broken down by year and month.
- If available, please provide a breakdown of where the van/LCV thefts occurred (eg: home, car park, work etc.) for the period 1 September 2021 to 31 August 2022. Please provide the numbers/locations broken down by month.
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 within 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). 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
Unfortunately, due to a major change in West Midlands Police recording systems, it is not currently possible to easily identify ‘Vans/LCVs’ in relation to Theft of Motor Vehicle offences recorded after March 2021. To determine the requested information after this time, we would need to manually examine every offence. Such a search however would involve going into thousands of records and researching each individual case would 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: