FOI 0212-2023/24 - Unlawful Eviction Allegations

Request:

Q1. The number of unlawful eviction allegations you have received within each of the preceding 5 years i.e. evictions contrary to section 1 of the Protection from Eviction Act 1977 (whether expressly stated as such or not).

Q2. Of those allegations, the number which have resulted in police investigations into breaches of s1 PEA in each of the preceding 5 years.

Q3. Of those investigations, the number which have resulted in prosecutions being brought by the police for breaches of s1 PEA in each of the proceeding 5 years.

Q4. Of those investigations, the number which have been referred to a local authority for prosecution for breaches of s1 PEA in each of the proceeding 5 years.

Q5. Copies of all local policies, protocols, standard operating procedures, etc, addressing how your officers should respond to allegations that an unlawful eviction is ongoing and/or has already taken place, including what steps officers should take to prevent tenants from being unlawfully evicted and how reports of unlawful eviction should be investigated.

Q6. Copies of all national policies, held by your organisation, addressing the same issues.

Q7. Copies of all other materials used to train officers on these issues i.e. material provided or shown to the officers being trained and material provided solely to trainers.

Q8. Copies of any internal reports, memos, minutes of meetings, etc, held by your organisation and dated within the last 3 years regarding how your organisation responds to, or should respond to, unlawful evictions.

Response:

Extent and Result of Searches to Locate Information

To locate the information relevant to your request searches were conducted within North Yorkshire Police.

Decision

I wish to advise you that there is no information held by North Yorkshire Police to answer your request.

Local Authorities will often manage evictions and they may (or may not) ask operational officers for assistance on a case by case basis.

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.