FOI 0656-2023/24- Op Snap Submissions

Request:

Please provide a full breakdown of all data held for North Yorkshires Operation Snap in 2022 to include the following:

Q1.  Total number of submissions received.

Q2.  The total number of submissions that were actually reviewed.

Q3.  The total number of submissions that led to no action.

Q4.  The total number of submissions that led to positive action.

Q5.  The total number of submissions that led to formal Warning Advisory letters.

Q6.  The total number of submissions that led to a conditional offer of a diversionary course.

Q7.   The total number of submissions that led to conditional fixed penalty notices (FPNs).

Q8.   The total number of submissions that proceeded to court.

Q9. Please provide the data requested in each of A1 to A8 above but filtered specifically to those submissions made only by cyclists.

Q10. Please also provide the details requested in A for each of the following calendar years:

• 2017
• 2018
• 2019
• 2020
• 2021
• 2023 – up to the latest month available

Q11. Please provide a sample illustration of an advisory-warning letter that a registered keeper receives in response to a complaint of a close pass of a cyclist.

Q12. Please detail how long this warning record is kept against the registered keeper. (Does the reviewer check for previous offences for the offending registration?

Q13. How are repeat offenders who receive advisory-warning letters tracked? ).

Q14. Please provide data that compares North Yorkshire Police's submission review performance with other UK police forces' performance.  ( I.e. a comparison of results of A1 to A8 ).

Respone: 

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 regarding the outcome, it would be necessary to manually review over 2,000 cases to determine what action was taken and then review each of those to see whether or not it was complied with and what, if any further actions were taken in relation to court proceedings.

In terms of cyclist/non cyclist submissions, these again would have to be manually reviewed to ascertain if in fact a cyclist or non-cyclist was involved, which could mean manually reading witness statements and/or viewing footage to see if it can be determined whether the footage is captured from a cyclist or other, 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). We may be able to provide information for part 1 and 11 of your request if you resubmit and omit part 2-10 and parts 12, 13 and 14, 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.