FOI 259624
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: 259624
I write in connection with your request for information which was received on 3rd July 2023. Please find below the response to your request:
Please could we have:
Q1: The number of dog attacks that have been recorded by your force? Please have this broken down annually, by breed and by any categorisation you might give for those attacks over the past 5 years.
Q2: The number of dogs seized by your force (dogs that are out of control, aggressive, have attacked someone/an animal or are considered dangerous) over the past 5 years? Broken down annually, by your categorisation and by breed.
(If you would like to save time compiling the above, we would only like data from dogs which are related to the Bully XL: American Bully, Staffy Cross or any type of Bully cross)
Has your force written to Central Government expressing concerns over the rise of attacks attributed to Bully XLs?
Is there anything you’d like to add about the views of your force when it comes to the rise of Bully XL attacks?
Reply
Please see below West Mercia Police’s response to your information request:-
Q1: The number of dog attacks that have been recorded by your force? Please have this broken down annually, by breed and by any categorisation you might give for those attacks over the past 5 years.
- It is not possible to obtain this information accurately from SAFESAAB.
Q2: The number of dogs seized by your force (dogs that are out of control, aggressive, have attacked someone/an animal or are considered dangerous) over the past 5 years? Broken down annually, by your categorisation and by breed.
(If you would like to save time compiling the above, we would only like data from dogs which are related to the Bully XL: American Bully, Staffy Cross or any type of Bully cross)
- 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”.
The information you have requested is not available in a readily retrievable format. The dog database contains not only dangerous dogs but is a means of tracking any seized dogs whilst in our designated kennels. The database is not searchable and this means that each individual entry has to viewed to extract any relevant information. This information may be mentioned within records held by West Mercia Police’ Dog Team over the past 5 years however to retrieve the requested information, if held, would involve a manual trawl and search of those 5 years’ worth of records held by the Dog Team. Between January 2018 to 6 July 2023 there are 946 entries and to review each individual record has been estimated at 2 minutes per individual record (946 x 2mins = 1892 mins / 60 mins = 31.53 hours) which would exceed the time considerably.
The cost of providing you with this information, if held, 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, s.17(5), this acts as a Refusal Notice for this request. Under s.16 of the Act I have a duty to provide advice and assistance in relation to your request. Unfortunately, due to the volume of records that would need to be reviewed I am unable to identify information that could be supplied within the fees limit.
Has your force written to Central Government expressing concerns over the rise of attacks attributed to Bully XLs?
- Not that I am aware.
Is there anything you’d like to add about the views of your force when it comes to the rise of Bully XL attacks?
- Not at this time.