FOI 0772-2023/24- Dog Legislation Officers

Request:

I would like to request information under the Freedom of Information Act.
Q1. Please provide the number of how many registered Dog Legislation Officers (DLO) are employed by the force.
Q2. Please provide information on how many examinations of dogs have been performed by the DLOs under the Dangerous Dogs Act 1989 for every calendar month since January 2021.
Q3. How many of the examinations done by DLOs to determine if a dog was a banned breed (the answer to question B) resulted in a decision that the animal was of a banned type?
Q4. How many dogs have been seized and destroyed by the force under the Dangerous Dogs Act for 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and until November 1 2023? Please provide a number for the amount of seizures, and a separate figure for the number of destructions.
Q5. How many of the dogs destroyed in answer to question D were classified as being of banned types? (Pitbull, Pit Bull Terrier, Japanese Tosa, Dogo Argentino, Fila Braziliero)

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. The number of dogs seized, examined and destroyed is not held within a specific field. This would involve reviewing hundreds of files, 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, due to the information provided above I am unable to suggest how you may refine your request and still receive the information within the cost threshold.  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.