FOI Prosecution Time Limits (0821-2024/25)

Request
Q1. The total number of Offences across all affected cases, which couldn't be Prosecuted/Considered for Prosecution, as the Statute of Limitations (for affected Offences) had lapsed. Please may I clarify here, if there have been cases in which multiple Offences couldn't be Prosecuted/Considered for Prosecution (due to Statutory Time Limits lapsing), please might it be possible to get the total number of Offences which couldn't be proceeded with. 

I understand Statutory Time Limits may lapse during initial investigations, or, whilst cases are being reconsidered under (Police and CPS) Victim's Right to Review schemes - Please may I request figures for the total number of cases (by year, if possible) which couldn't be Prosecuted/Considered for Prosecution, due to Statutory Time Limits lapsing (regardless of the stage at which STLs may have lapsed). 

Please might it be possible to request this information for the last 20 years? 

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.

Prior to 2014 the data relating to outcome 17 (Prosecution time limit expiry) was not collected by the Home Office, and as such, in order to provide this data, each crime outcome would need to be manually reviewed to determine those where no further action was taken due to prosecution time limit expiry, 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). If you wish to revise and resubmit your request to include data from 2014 only, then I may be able to reconsider your request. 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.