FOI 459007

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: 459007

I write in connection with your request for information which was received on 16th February 2026.  Please find below the response to your request:

1) For each of the years 2023, 2024 and 2025, the total amount spent by your police force on veterinary bills and the cost of kennelling, in relation to suspected banned dogs. 

(If this information is only stored in financial years, please provide it for April 2022-2023, April 2023-2024, and April 2024-2025.) 

2) For each of the years 2023, 2024 and 2025, the number of dogs which were euthanised after being seized by the force. 

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. The database used covers all types of dogs held in the kennels including stray, prisoner, welfare etc and all outcomes. There are over 800 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.

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 question 1 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