FOI 0992-2024/25 Vehicle Theft

Request
Pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act 2000, I am writing to formally request the following information regarding motor vehicle thefts within the North Yorkshire Police for the period from 01/01/2020 to 31/12/2024:

Definition of Request:
For the purposes of this request, “motor vehicle theft” refers to the offense of taking a motor vehicle without consent as defined under Section 12 of the Theft Act 1968. Whilst I understand some Police Force Areas record theft of motor vehicles differently (e.g. Theft of Motor Vehicle, Aggravated Vehicle Taking), any data matching the concept of motor vehicle theft is sufficient.

Requested Information:
Incident Number: A unique numeric identifier for each incident (this does not need to correspond with your internal system).

1. Date and Time: The date and time of the incident occurrence or, if unavailable, the date and time of the report. If time data is not recorded, please provide the date only.
2. Location: The most granular location data available (or that you are allowed to provide) for each incident, preferably in latitude and longitude coordinates. If latitude/longitude cannot be provided, please return the next most granular location data available.
3. Manufacturer: The vehicle's manufacturer. If this is not a distinct column in your records, please provide the free text field where a vehicle’s manufacturer is mentioned.
4. Model: The vehicle's model. If this is not a distinct column in your records, please provide the free text field where a vehicle’s model is mentioned.

Please provide the data in an electronic format such as CSV or Excel to facilitate analysis. If the data is too large to send via email, please inform me of an alternative method to obtain the information.

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 the information you have requested is held by North Yorkshire Police.  

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

Q1-4. Please see the attached Excel spreadsheet titled ‘0992.2024-25 Response Attachment’ showing the number of reported incidents of ‘Theft Or Unauthorised Taking Of A Motor Vehicle’ in the period

1 January 2020 to 31 December 2024, broken down by calendar month and year (tab 1), Safer Neighbourhood Command (SNC) area broken down by calendar year (tab 2) and make and model (where held) of the vehicles stolen (tab 3).

I have disassociated the tables and removed certain details pursuant to Section 40(2) – Personal Information. This is to refrain from particular incidents becoming identifiable and consequently the personal details of any persons involved being disclosed.

Please see the below exemption explanation.

Exemption Explanation

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) – Personal Information
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.

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 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)).

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.