Dangerous dogs - 485/18

Date Responded 27 July 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 would appreciate your help in identifying the following figures for your police force for each year from 2011 to 2017:

1. How many dogs were seized by your Police Force under Section 1 of the Dangerous Dogs Act (DDA) 1991?

1.2 Of the dogs seized as prohibited types:

i. can you provide a break down into the four different prohibited types?

ii. How many were prosecuted under Section 1 of the DDA?

iii. how many were also charged with an offence under Section 3 of the same Act?

iv. how many were exempted using the Section 4b process?

v. what is the average length of time taken to exempt a dog using the Section 4b process?

vi. how many dogs were destroyed by a) court order and b) with the owner’s consent?

2. Has your Force implemented the Interim Exemption Scheme (IES)?

2.1 If your force has implemented IES:

i. how many times has it been used?

ii. what is the average time taken for a dog to be seized and returned home using the IES?

3. What is the average time taken to prosecute for a Section 1 offence?

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 Operations Department of Northumbria Police. I can confirm that the information you have requested is held by Northumbria Police.

To note – this information is only available from 2013.

I am able to disclose the located information to you as follows.

1.35

i. 32 Pitbull types 0 Japanese Tosa 0 Dogo Argentina 0 Fila Braziliero

ii. 11

iii. 1

iv. 4

v. No information held. We do not calculate this.

vi. a) 2 and b) 17

i. 4

ii No information held. We do not calculate this.

3.No information held. We do not calculate this.

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.