FOI 382459

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: 382459

I write in connection with your request for information which was received on 9^th January 2025. Please find below the response to your request:

Since 2019 how many dog attacks have been reported each year, and if possible, broken down into breeds?

How many dog on human attacks have, to your knowledge, resulted in hospitalisations each year since 2019?

How many reports of XL bully attacks since 2019, and have you noticed a decrease since the 1st February 2024?

Which dog breed carried out the most attacks each year since 2019?

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 regarding the specific dog breed is not available in a readily retrievable format, there is no separate recording field for the dog breed. There are over 4799 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. We also do not specifically record what treatment is required and therefore are unable to provide this information.

In accordance with s.17(5) of the Act, this acts as a Refusal Notice.

However, In accordance with Section 16 of the Act I have a duty to provide advice and assistance in relation to your request and can provide the information requested for questions 1 and partly 3 as this was retrieved during our initial research. This should not be taken as a precedent that additional information would be supplied outside of the time/fees legislation for any subsequent requests

1. Since 2019 how many dog attacks have been reported each year

1. How many reports of XL bully attacks since 2019

Caveat: The below information was found by carrying out a keyword search in the MO Summary looking for ‘XL Bully’. As this is a keywork search if the word is not in the MO then it will not be included as part of the count. Please also note the breed of the dog noted is very often the perception of the individual reporting and may not be the actual dog breed. The information below cannot be taken as accurate.