FOI 251864
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: 251864
I write in connection with your request for information which was received on 26th May 2023. Please find below the response to your request:
I am writing to you under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to request the following information:
In each of the following years to 1 April: 2019-20, 2020-21; 2021-22; 2022-2023
- How many times did the force use a Taser on people in each year? Please give the number of incidents, rather than the number of individuals.
Please break down by incidents where a Taser weapon was drawn, aimed or fired.
Where a Taser weapon was fired, please only mark this once (no need to note it was drawn or aimed in these cases), and similarly where a weapon was aimed, no need to note it was drawn.
- Please provide a breakdown of incidents by the age of the person who the weapon was used on - if exact age is not possible, please use the following brackets (0-17; 18-25; 25-65; 65-80; 80+).
Reply
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.
The information you have requested is not available in a readily retrievable format. There are over 2000 records. In order to ascertain whether the information you have requested is held would take in excess of 18 hours as each record would have to be checked individually.
In accordance with s.17(5) of the Act, this acts as a Refusal Notice.
Under s.16 of the Act I have a duty to provide advice and assistance in relation to your request. However I can state that the use of force statistics are published on
Previous years will also be found on the government website.