Psychoactive substances - 592/18

Date Responded 26 June 2018

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:

I am writing to you under the Freedom of Information Act to request the following data:

1) The number of arrests made under the New Psychoactive Substances Act in 2016, 2017 and between January 1st 2018 and May 25th 2018 (inclusive)

2) The number of people charged under the New Psychoactive Substances Act in 2016, 2017 and between January 1st 2018 and May 25th 2018 (inclusive)

3) The number of people cautioned under the New Psychoactive Substances Act in 2016, 2017 and between January 1st 2018 and May 25th 2018 (inclusive)

In Response:

We have now had the opportunity to fully consider your request and I provide a response for your attention.

Following receipt of your request, searches were conducted with the Corporate Development Department of Northumbria Police. I can confirm that the information you have requested is held by Northumbria Police.

Question1 - data was collated through a search of all arrests for the below HO Codes and a count of all arrests (if a person has been arrested more than once they will be counted more than once)

Questions 2 and 3 - data was collated through a search of all disposals for the below HO Codes, filtered for charges, postal requisitions and summons and then for cautions. This a count of people (therefore if a person has been charged more than once, they will only appear once)

Produce a psychoactive substance

Supply a psychoactive substance

Offer to supply a psychoactive substance

Possess a psychoactive substance with intent to supply

Import a psychoactive substance

Export a psychoactive substance

Possess a psychoactive substance in a custodial institution

With the above in mind, I am able to disclose the located information to you as follows.

	2016	2017	2018
No. of Arrests	20	8	2

	2016	2017	2018
Charge	0	14	0
Postal Requisition	1	9	4
Summons	0	0	1

	2016	2017	2018
Caution	1	0	0

Disclaimer

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 information we have supplied to you is likely to contain intellectual property rights of Northumbria Police. Your use of the information must be strictly in accordance with the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 (as amended) or such other applicable legislation. In particular, you must not re-use this information for any commercial purpose.