FOI 417941

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: 417941

I write in connection with your request for information which was received on 26^th June 2025. Please find below the response to your request:

1. The number of reported thefts of electric vehicle (EV) charging cables recorded by your force from 1 June 2024 to 31 May 2025 inclusive.
2. The number of reported thefts of electric vehicle (EV) charging cables recorded by your force from 1 June 2023 to 31 May 2024 inclusive.
3. If available, the location of these thefts (e.g. postcode area or city/town/village).
4. If held, any data on whether the thefts occurred from private driveways, public charging stations, or other types of location.

If this request exceeds the cost limit, please prioritise questions 1 and 2.

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 crime title of category to denote that an EV Charger has been stolen. Whilst our crime management system does have a field to record stolen property, it is not mandatory to complete, it is not regularly used and cannot be relied upon. In order to fully ascertain whether accurate 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.

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 that 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.

The information below was retrieved by carrying out the following searches:

Recorded between 01/06/2023 & 31/05/2025

With a Primary Offence Group of; Theft or Burglary

Or Primary Offence Sub Group of; Theft from a vehicle

Keywords used within the incident summary; Charging Cable or EV Charger

Please note: There is a location type field in the crime management system however this is not routinely used. It is difficult to discern from the location as the driveway/garage of a residential property would be listed simply as the residential property. Where it was included the information has been extracted.