FOI 434601
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: 434601
I write in connection with your request for information which was received on 30th September 2025. Please find below the response to your request:
I have simplified the question into two sections please so I hope this helps:
- Can you list the number of offences last year where an e-bike has been used by a suspect to commit a crime;
- Can you list the number of offences last year where an e-scooter has been used by a suspect to commit a crime;
- Can you list the number of offences last year where an e-bike has been used by a suspect to commit a crime over the last 3-5 years (whichever is most financially obtainable);
- Can you list the number of offences last year where an e-scooter has been used by a suspect to commit a crime over the last 3-5 years (whichever is most financially obtainable);
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 as a keyword search was required to be completed which then necessitated a manual review to remove any false positives. There are over 516 records for 2023 and 2024 alone. 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.
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 for questions 3 and 4.
However, I can provide the information requested for questions 1 and 2 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.
Caveat: The search returned a total of 265 unique offences for Questions 1 and 2 (2024 offences). In the query, to reduce false positives, a space was left before the ‘E’ in E BIKE/SCOOTER, E-BIKE/SCOOTER and EBIKE/SCOOTER (ie. ‘the bike’, ‘blue bike’). A manual review of the free-text incident summary fields was completed to identify relevant records of e-bikes/e-scooters being used by suspects to commit offences. The positive returns include all offences where the suspect was using, or in possession of, an e-bike/scooter at the time of the offence (eg. from physically riding the bike/scooter while committing the offence, to using it as a mode of transport to make off from the offence location).
- Can you list the number of offences last year where an e-bike has been used by a suspect to commit a crime;
Offences using e-bikes to commit crimes in 2024
– 42
- Can you list the number of offences last year where an e-scooter has been used by a suspect to commit a crime;
Offences using e-scooters to commit crimes in 2024
– 46