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:
1.How many offences of theft from a shop under section 1 of the Theft Act 1968 were recorded in the years. 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017. If possible, could this information be split into:i)How many offences of low value shoplifting (under £200) were recorded in these years; and
ii)How many offences of ‘theft’ (above £200) were recorded in these years.
2.How many offences of theft (excluding from a shop) were recorded in the years 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017.
3.How many offences of making off without payment under section 3 of the Theft Act 1968 were recorded in the years 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017.
4.How many offences of burglary under section 9 of the Theft Act 1968 were recorded in the years 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017.
5.How many offences of handling stolen goods under section 22 of the Theft Act were recorded in the years 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017.
6.In the earliest year you have recorded data, how many offences of theft from a shop under section 1 of the Theft Act 1968 were recorded:
i)How many offences of low value shoplifting (under £200) were recorded in these years; and
ii)How many offences of ‘theft’ (above £200) were recorded in these years.
7.In the earliest year you have recorded data, how many offences of theft (excluding from a shop) were recorded.
8.In the earliest year you have recorded data, how many offences of making off without payment under section 3 of the Theft Act 1968 were recorded.
9.In the earliest year you have recorded data, how many offences of burglary under section 9 of the Theft Act 1968 were recorded.
10.In the earliest year you have recorded data, how many offences of handling stolen goods under section 22 of the Theft Act were recorded.
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, however cannot be disclosed for the following reasons.
The information requested at questions 6 to 10 is held, however, the ‘earliest recorded’ data is paper based and therefore not held in a searchable format. We do not know how many records this would involve at this stage as we would have to locate, retrieve and count these, which would take over the permitted 18 hour threshold. This section does not oblige a public authority to comply with a request for information if the authority estimated that the cost of complying with the request would exceed the appropriate limit of 18 hours, equating to £450.00
You should consider this to be a refusal notice under Section 17 of the Act your request
As part of your request would exceed the prescribed limit, as defined by the Act, there is no requirement for Northumbria Police to provide a response to the remaining parts of your request. However, in order to provide you with some assistance, under Section 16 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, an initial assessment of the information that may be provided within the time constraints would be questions 1 to 5 as you have asked.
If the above would be useful, you may wish to refine and resubmit your request accordingly
