FOI 391889
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: 391889
I write in connection with your request for information which was received on 25th February 2025 . Please find below the response to your request:
- A) The number of jewellery thefts reported each month from January 2020 to December 2024.
- B) The number of thefts involving gold items/products (including gold jewellery) reported each month from January 2020 to December 2024.
- C) A breakdown of stolen gold items by category, showing the total number reported stolen each month for the following: Gold bars, Gold coins, Gold jewellery, Other gold items (please specify if possible).
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 is no specific offence for “Theft of jewellery”, as such we would have to search for all offences with a potentially relevant Primary Offence Group (Burglary or Robbery) or potentially relevant Primary Offence Sub Sub Group (Theft from person, theft in dwelling, other theft) where the victim is a person not an organisation with either one of the keywords within the incident summary (Bracelet, Necklace, Earring, Ring, Jewellery, Watch) or with a piece of property linked to the crime as stolen which has been listed as an item of jewellery. Each investigation would need to be reviewed to see if it was relevant.
There are over 10015 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.
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.