FOI Van Thefts (0713-2024/25)

Request
Q1. Monthly totals January 2020 to December 2023:

       a. Van thefts
       b. Tool thefts from vehicles

Q2. Postcodes of all the above thefts

Q3. Total value of tools stolen

Q4. Number of tools recovered and returned

Extent and Result of Searches to Locate Information
To locate the information relevant to your request searches were conducted within North Yorkshire Police. I can confirm that some of the information you have requested is held by North Yorkshire Police.  

Decision
I have today decided to disclose the following information to you.

Q1. Please see the table below showing the number of reported ‘Theft or Unauthorised Taking of a Motor Vehicle’ (filtered by van) and then ‘Theft from a Motor Vehicle’, again filtered by Van and by ‘Agricultural machinery/tools’, ‘Construction equipment’, ‘Electrical materials’, ‘Garden hand tools’, ‘Garden power tools’, ‘Hand tools’, ‘Other machinery or tools’ and ‘Power tools’ in the period 1 January 2020 to 31 December 2023, broken down by month. 

Q2. I am exempting postcodes of the above thefts pursuant to Section 40 (2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the Act).  Please see exemption explanation below.  In order to assist I have provided the data broken down by Safer Neighbourhood Command (SNC). As per Q1, for tool thefts I have filtered by ‘Agricultural machinery/tools’, ‘Construction equipment’, ‘Electrical materials’, ‘Garden hand tools’, ‘Garden power tools’, ‘Hand tools’, ‘Other machinery or tools’ and ‘Power tools’. Please see the tables below. 

Q3. The value field is not a mandatory field for completion and relies on the Officer completing this.  I am therefore only able to provide an overall figure for the above tools where the value information has been recorded by the Officer (£78,085) (representative of current value). Anything that is held within the rest of the case file would not be captured and would require a manual read to see if any further information was held in respect of the value.

Q4. Please see the table below showing the number of tools recovered and returned, broken down by calendar year. 

Exemption Explanation

Section 40 (2) Personal information – Q2
I am exempting the information requested in order to refrain from particular incidents becoming identifiable and consequently the personal details of any persons involved being disclosed.

Where an individual can be identified by such data, releasing it would clearly breach the first data protection principle of being ‘fair’ to the data subject.

Section 17 of the Act requires North Yorkshire Police, when refusing to provide such information (because the information is exempt) to provide you the applicant with a notice which: (a) states that fact, (b) specifies the exemption in question and (c) states (if that would not otherwise be apparent) why the exemption applies.

Section 40(2) is an absolute class based exemption, which does not require a public interest test, but requires the balancing of the legitimate interests of the public against the interests of the individual under the first Data Protection Principle; in that processing of personal data must be lawful and fair (DPA 2018 35(1), EUGDPR Article 5(1)).

This exemption applies because the right given under the FOI Act to request official information held by public authorities does not apply to the personal data of third parties where disclosure of that information would not be fair to the individual, and where there is no legitimate public interest in disclosure.

In all the circumstances of the case it has been determined that the duty to the individual under the Data Protection Act 2018 & EU General Data Protection Regulations, and the public interest in maintaining the exemption from disclosure of personal information held by the force in such instances, outweighs the public interest in disclosure.  In this instance, personal information can only be disclosed to the individual concerned. 

Releasing personal details to a person other than the data subject would not only breach the data subject’s Data Protection rights it may also breach the obligations placed on an authority under the European Convention on Human Rights.

Pursuant to Section 17(1) of the Act this letter acts as a refusal notice under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 in relation to your request.

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.