FOI 0650-2023/24- Number plate violations

Request:

Q1. Please provide a breakdown of number plate violations by type in your area by year? (2021, 2022)

Q2. How many people were caught for missing front number plates by year? (2021, 2022)

Q3. How many number plate violations were caught by cameras in 2022?

Q4. How many number plate violations were caught by officers in 2022?

Q5. How many reports of number plate cloning have there been this year?

Q6. How many reports of number plate theft have there been this year?

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.

Reports of number plate cloning are not recorded in a specific field, therefore in order to retrieve the requested information it would be necessary to manually review all road related incidents to see whether it mentioned that the number plate was cloned.  This would involve reading through hundreds of reports, which would exceed the time limited 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 can provide you with information relating to Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4 and Q6 if you resubmit your request and omit Q5. Please do not hesitate to contact me further to discuss or submit a new 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