FOI 8450-25 Rape and sexual offences
Request to Northamptonshire Police
Q1. How many reports of rape and sexual offences were there with an identified suspect?
Q2. Of the reports of rape and sexual offences with an identified suspect, please share the outcome of each case. For example, no further action, referred to the CPS.
Q3. Of the reports of rape and sexual offences with an identified suspect (identified in Q1), how many identified suspects were interviewed? Please share the number of cases rather than the number of identified suspects interviewed.
Q4. Of the reports of rape and sexual offences with an identified suspect (identified in Q1), how many victims were interviewed? Please share the number of cases rather than the number of victims interviewed.
Clarified
Please may I have information for over the past 5 years, from 1 January 2020.
Response
Northamptonshire Police systems are designed primarily for the management of individual cases and not for the production of statistical information for Freedom Of Information responses.
Section 17 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 requires Northamptonshire Police, when refusing to provide such information (because the information is exempt) to provide you the applicant with a notice which:
- states that fact,
- specifies the exemption in question and
- states (if that would not otherwise be apparent) why the exemption
The exemption applicable to the information requested is:
Section 12(1) – Exemption where cost of compliance exceeds appropriate limit
The information you are requesting for Q3 and Q4 is not held by Northamptonshire Police in any reasonably retrievable form. The only means of establishing information of the nature you are requesting would be by way of manual examination of each record. Our information retrieval process generally relies on a computer ran report which captures any information recorded upon the surface of a record or within specified fields. Where relevant information is held deeper in the record, or outside of a specified field, a manual assessment is usually required to retrieve that information.
It is my assessment that the cost of providing you with the information requested would exceed the 'appropriate level' as set out in the Freedom of Information (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004.
My assessment is that it would cost 10,398 (number of records) x 3 minutes each (minimum) = over 519 hours at £25 per hour to respond to your request, which exceeds the 'appropriate limit' (currently £450 for 'prescribed costs').
In view of the above, and in accordance with the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, please take this letter as a Refusal Notice.
You may wish to refine and resubmit your request so that it reduces the costs shown above and is then within the 'appropriate limit' shown above. (I cannot think of a means to refine the request in order to provide the information you are seeking) but if you would like some further information about how to proceed with your request then please contact:
Although excess cost removes the Force’s obligations under the Freedom of Information Act, as a gesture of goodwill, I have supplied information, relevant to your request, which was retrieved or available before it was realised that the fees limit would be exceeded. I trust this is helpful, but it does not affect our legal right to rely on the fees regulations for the remainder of your request.
|
|
2020 |
2021 |
2022 |
2023 |
2024 |
|
1: Charged |
94 |
59 |
104 |
108 |
108 |
|
1: Summonsed/postal requisition |
111 |
120 |
87 |
32 |
21 |
|
10: Police - formal action not in public interest |
1 |
2 |
|
|
1 |
|
11: Named suspect below age of criminal responsibility |
20 |
25 |
29 |
41 |
33 |
|
12: Named suspect identified but is dead or too ill (physical or mental health) to prosecute |
6 |
16 |
14 |
22 |
33 |
|
13: Named suspect but victim/key witness deceased or too ill |
4 |
1 |
2 |
3 |
6 |
|
14: Victim declines/unable to support action to identify offender |
18 |
9 |
7 |
11 |
12 |
|
15: CPS - named suspect, victim supports but evidential difficulties |
79 |
79 |
67 |
47 |
56 |
|
15: Police - named suspect, victim supports but evidential difficulties |
719 |
679 |
675 |
589 |
653 |
|
16: Victim declines/withdraws support - named suspect identified |
627 |
772 |
844 |
799 |
826 |
|
17: Suspect identified but prosecution time limit expired |
|
1 |
|
1 |
2 |
|
18: Investigation complete no suspect identified |
13 |
30 |
15 |
13 |
23 |
|
1A: Alternate offence charged |
3 |
4 |
10 |
9 |
2 |
|
1A: Alternate offence summonsed/postal requisition |
12 |
11 |
2 |
5 |
1 |
|
2: Youth caution |
|
2 |
|
|
4 |
|
2: Youth conditional caution |
|
|
1 |
2 |
|
|
20: Other body/agency has investigation primacy |
72 |
62 |
76 |
77 |
61 |
|
21: Police - named suspect, investigation not in the public interest |
51 |
45 |
54 |
42 |
37 |
|
22: Diversionary, educational or intervention activity, has been undertaken |
3 |
7 |
13 |
22 |
23 |
|
2A: Alternate offence youth conditional caution |
1 |
|
1 |
|
|
|
3: Adult caution |
4 |
|
|
|
3 |
|
3: Adult conditional caution |
5 |
3 |
8 |
5 |
5 |
|
3A: Alternate offence adult conditional caution |
1 |
|
1 |
|
2 |
|
4: TIC (taken into consideration) |
|
|
|
|
1 |
|
5: Offender has died |
24 |
15 |
8 |
9 |
6 |
|
8: Community resolution |
10 |
20 |
11 |
10 |
4 |
|
8: Youth restorative disposal |
1 |
|
|
|
|
|
9: CPS - prosecution not in public interest |
4 |
1 |
2 |
|
1 |
|
UU unresolved |
23 |
17 |
56 |
168 |
486 |
Due to the different methods of recording information across 43 forces, a specific response from one constabulary should not be seen as an indication of what information could be supplied (within cost) by another. Systems used for recording these figures are not generic, nor are the procedures used locally in capturing the data. For this reason, responses between forces may differ, and should not be used for comparative purposes.
The numerical data presented in this response is an un-audited snapshot of un-published data sourced from "live" systems and is subject to the interpretation of the original request by the individual extracting the data.
Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that the data has been extracted from a number of data sources used by forces for police purposes. The detail collected to respond specifically to your request is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large scale recording system. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when interpreting the data.
The figures provided therefore are our best interpretation of relevance of data to your request, but you should be aware that the collation of figures for ad hoc requests may have limitations and this should be taken into account when the data is used.
If you decide to write an article / use the enclosed data, we would ask you to take into consideration the factors highlighted in this document so as to not mislead members of the public or official bodies or misrepresent the relevance of the whole or any part of this disclosed material.