FOI 0644-2024/25- Wildlife crime officers

Request:

I am only requesting data from 1 August 2023 until receipt date of FOI request.

Q1, Currently how many recognised wildlife trained full time Police officers do you have in your force? Date of FOI request receipt.

Q2, How many of these officers have undertaken College of Policing recognised training? Date of FOI request receipt.

Q3, Who was the service provider.

Q4, How many of these officers are full time Wildlife crime officers. Date of FOI request receipt.

Q5, How many wildlife incidents that have been reported to your force would fit the recording status below if they had notifiable status under Home Office counting rules?

Section 1 of the Protection of Badgers Act 1992 Section 2 of the Protection of Badgers Act 1992 Section 3 of the Protection of Badgers Act 1992 Section 1 of Wild Mammals Protection Act 1996 Section 1 of Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 Section 5 of Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 Section 9 of Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 Section 11 of Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 Section 30 of Game Act 1831 Section 5 of the Hunting Act 2004 Section 4 of Animal Welfare Act 2006 Section 8 of Animal Welfare Act 2006 Schedule 1 of Theft Act 1968 Section 27a of Salmon & Freshwater Fisheries Act 1975 Section 1 of Deer Act 1991 Section 2 of Deer Act 1991 Section 3 of Deer Act 1991 Section 1 of the Hunting Act 2004 Section 1 of the Night Poaching Act 1828 Section 18 of Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 Section 9(4A) of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 Section 14 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 Section 28P of the Wildlife & Countryside Act 1981 Regulation 43 Conservation of Habitats and Species Regs 2017 Regulation 54 Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2017

Q6, How many wildlife incidents below have been recorded as below?

Section 1 of the Protection of Badgers Act 1992 Section 2 of the Protection of Badgers Act 1992 Section 3 of the Protection of Badgers Act 1992 Section 1 of Wild Mammals Protection Act 1996 Section 1 of Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 Section 5 of Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 Section 9 of Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 Section 11 of Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 Section 30 of Game Act 1831 Section 5 of the Hunting Act 2004 Section 4 of Animal Welfare Act 2006 Section 8 of Animal Welfare Act 2006 Schedule 1 of Theft Act 1968 Section 27a of Salmon & Freshwater Fisheries Act 1975 Section 1 of Deer Act 1991 Section 2 of Deer Act 1991 Section 3 of Deer Act 1991 Section 1 of the Hunting Act 2004 Section 1 of the Night Poaching Act 1828 Section 18 of Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 Section 9(4A) of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 Section 14 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 Section 28P of the Wildlife & Countryside Act 1981 Regulation 43 Conservation of Habitats and Species Regs 2017 Regulation 54 Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2017

Q7, How many wildlife incident/crime reports have your force received that have been recorded as “generic/other” (Not to include Livestock Attacks) 8, How many Livestock Attacks has your force received in the time range.

Q9, How many of these “generic/other” wildlife incident/crime incidents have resulted in No Further Action by police.

Q10, How many of these “generic/other” wildlife incident/crime incidents have resulted in a Local resolution.

Q11, How many of these “generic/other” wildlife incident/crime incidents have resulted in a Conditional Caution.

Q12. How many of these “generic/other” wildlife incident/crime incidents have resulted in a charge.

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 relation to Q5-Q12, due to recording methods, in order to retrieve the requested information it would be necessary to manually review every wildlife job, which some are recorded as animal/wildlife however some are recorded as susp circumstances for the timeframe requested, to establish if they related to the any of the acts stated within the request, 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 some information for parts 1 – 4 of your request if you resubmit and omit parts 5 -12.  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.