FOI 0755-2023/24 - Public order arrests

Request:

Q1. How many arrests have been made under the Public Order Act 2023 since it came into force?

In each case, please include the alleged offence and outcome – no further action, charged, etc.

Q2. For each of the years 2018/9, 2019/20, 2020/1, 2021/2, and 2022/3:

• How many times were conditions imposed upon a protest under the Public Order Act 1986?
• How many arrests were made for failing to comply with conditions imposed upon a protest. In each case, please include the outcome.

Q3. How many arrests have been made under the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 since it came into force?

In each case, please include the alleged offence and outcome – no further action, charged, etc.

Response:

Extent of Searches to Locate Information

Following receipt of your request searches were conducted within North Yorkshire Police to locate relevant information. 

Decision

I am not obliged to provide you with a response to your request pursuant to Section 12(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the Act). Please note that when one part of your request falls under Section 12, we are not obliged to review the rest of the questions and the whole request is therefore exempt.

Section 12(1) applies to your request as the cost of complying with your request is above the amount to which we are legally required to respond i.e. the cost of identifying and retrieving any relevant information exceeds the ‘appropriate level’ as stated in the Freedom of Information (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004.

Due to the nature of our recording systems the information requested, if held, is not in an easily retrievable format. 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 required to retrieve that information.

In order to retrieve the requested information for Q2, it would be necessary to review all incidents and crimes, to ascertain if that person had been at a protest or if any arrests were made, which would mean reviewing hundreds of records, which would exceed the time limit allowed under the Act. 

Pursuant to Section 17(5) of the Freedom of Information Act this letter acts as a Refusal Notice.

Pursuant to Section 16 of the Act I am required to offer you advice and assistance with regarding to refining your request to within the ‘appropriate limit’ (time/cost limit). However, we may be able to provide information for part 1 and 3 of your request if you resubmit and omit part 2.  If you wish to discuss this please do not hesitate to contact me.

Please note that systems used for recording information are not generic, nor are the procedures used locally in capturing the data.  It should be noted therefore that this force’s response to your questions should not be used for comparison purposes with any other responses you may receive.