FOI 0941-2024/25- Rape reports
Request:
Clarification
It is the victim of rape and whether they were sectioned after reporting the crime to the police.
Original request
I am submitting a Freedom of Information request regarding rape reports, Mental Health Act sectioning, and related statistics.
# Requested Information
Q1. *Rape Reports (2021-2024)*: Number of reports made by women, broken down by age and ethnicity (if available).
Q2. *Mental Health Act Sectioning*: Number of report-makers sectioned, including age and ethnicity breakdown (if available).
Q3. *Rape Circumstances*: Number of women raped by:
- Partners/ex-partners
- Strangers
- Intruders (within homes)
- Number drugged
- Number asleep
Q4. *Investigation and Prosecution*:
- Average reporting-to-court time
- Percentage of cases with forensic analysis
- Investigation rates with SARC evidence
- Cases involving unconsented sex (2019-2024), including:
- Victims asleep
- Victims drugged
- Both
Q5. *Case Closure*: Number of rape cases closed without investigation (2020-2024).
# Additional Requests
Q6. Mental health assessment and support service policies/guidelines for rape victims.
Q7. Conviction data from reported rape cases.
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.
In order to retrieve the requested information, it would be necessary to manually review over 2000 rape crimes and cross reference with the data related to S136 of the mental health act reports, to establish if any one person had been sectioned after they had made a report of a rape crime to police, this manual process would exceed the time limit allowed under the Act.
In relation to Q4 and Q7 Conviction/prosecution data is held by HMCTS and is not recorded in an easily retrievable format, meaning that a manual read of over 2000 records would be required to extract the data. A manual review would also be required of each case to establish if the victim was asleep or drugged, 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, we may be able to provide some information for Q1, Q3, Q5, Q6 if you resubmit and omit parts Q4 and Q7. We may be able to provide a total figure for Q2 however are unable to link/cross reference to that of rape crimes as explained above. 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.