Provision of information held by Northumbria Police made under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the 'Act')
As you may be aware the purpose of the Act is to allow a general right of access to information held at the time of a request, by a Public Authority (including the Police), subject to certain limitations and exemptions.
You asked:
Please provide the following information, per calendar year, for the years 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021.
1. How many drug supply arrests of juveniles aged 16 or under have been recorded that are deemed to be "County Lines" offences? Could these figures be broken down by year, please?
2. If your Force does not distinguish drug supply offences as "County Lines" or not then please supply the information in question 1 as generic drug supply with an offender aged 16 or under.
3. How many County lines arrests of juveniles under the age of 16 have been recorded for class A/B/C drugs? If possible, please supply numbers for heroin, cocaine, other (class A); Cannabis, Ketamine, Amphetamine (class B); Steroids, other (class C). Could these figures also be broken down by year, please?
4. If your Force does not distinguish drug supply offences as "County Lines" or not then how many drug supply arrests of juveniles under the age of 16 have been recorded for class A/B/C drugs? If possible, please supply numbers for heroin, cocaine, other (class A); Cannabis, Ketamine, Amphetamine (class B); Steroids, other (class C). Could these figures be broken down by year, please?
In Response:
I am able to disclose the located information to you with the following noted.
• As we do not have a way of flagging county lines offences; we have answered questions 2 and 4 only.
• Please note that the data has been presented in such a manner as to avoid the application of exemptions relevant under the Act to withhold, and these will not be broken down further.
2.
Year |
2016 |
2017 |
2018 |
2019 |
2020 |
2021 |
U16 Drug Supply Arrests |
7 |
11 |
11 |
12 |
24 |
11 |
4.
Year |
2016 |
2017 |
2018 |
2019 |
2020 |
2021 |
U16 "Class A" drug supply arrests |
3 |
8 |
12 |
6 |
13 |
5 |
U16 "Class B" drug supply arrests |
17 |
16 |
5 |
14 |
12 |
7 |
U16 "Class C" drug supply arrests |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
U16 non-specific drug supply arrests |
4 |
2 |
1 |
5 |
5 |
5 |