FOI 200930

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: 200930

I write in connection with your request for information which was received on 4^th October 2022.  Please find below the response to your request:

Please provide me with:

1. The total amount of cash found in public and handed in to your force in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022.
2. The total number of individuals or organisations who reported the cash in those years.

Please divide the above information by:

1. Whether it was returned to the owner, returned to the finder, or other.
2. Who handed it in (e.g. individual, state organisation, private company).

Reply

1. The total amount of cash found in public and handed in to your force in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022.
2. The total number of individuals or organisations who reported the cash in those years.

Please divide the above information by:

1. Whether it was returned to the owner, returned to the finder, or other.
2. Who handed it in (e.g. individual, state organisation, private company).

Your request for information has been considered in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (“the Act”), and I am not obliged to provide the information requested.

S.12(1) of the Act states that a public authority is not obliged to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying with the request would exceed the “appropriate limit”. For police forces in England and Wales, the "appropriate limit" is £450 or 18 hours of work as set by the Freedom of Information (Fees and Appropriate Limit) Regulations 2004.

S.12(2) of the Act exempts a public authority from its obligations under Section 1(1) - the duty to confirm if the information being requested is held, if to provide that confirmation alone would exceed the “appropriate limit”.  Data regarding whether the money was returned to the owner, finder or other plus who handed the cash in, an individual, state organisation or private company may be held in the records of each Business Support Team/Area  but to retrieve the requested information, if held, would involve a manual trawl and search of hundreds of cash sheet records held by West Mercia Police which would then need to be collated with cheque records and property receipts held within Property. The estimated time it would take to retrieve this information manually from each Business Support Team/Area is in excess of 40 working hours.

Therefore the cost of providing you with this information is above the amount to which we are legally required to respond i.e. the cost of locating and retrieving the information exceeds the ‘appropriate level’ as stated in the Freedom of Information (Fees and Appropriate Limit) Regulations 2004.  In accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000, this letter acts as a Refusal Notice for this request. 

However whilst progressing your request I was able to find the following information and hope this may of be use. I would add that the information below is provided outside of the Act and further that this information, provided outside of the Act, does not set a precedent.

1. The total amount of cash found in public and handed in to your force in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022.
2. The total number of individuals or organisations who reported the cash in those years.