FOI 1005-2024/25 Emergency Worker Assaults

Request
According to FOI request 0681.2024-25, your force recorded 60 crimes for assaulting an emergency worker, where the suspect was female between 1 January 2020 to 1 November 2024. A follow up FOI confirmed that in 2 of these incidents, a “domestic incident” was recorded. 

Please can you provide the following information:

Q1. When “domestic incident” was recorded as part of the crime, was the female recorded as:

(a) the suspect of committing the domestic abuse (all female suspects)

(b) the victim of the domestic abuse (all female victims),

(c) or were some incidents recorded as involving a male suspect of domestic abuse (both)? 

Please provide as your answer “all female suspects” “all female victims” or “both” 

If the response is “all female victims”, you do not need to respond to Q2. Please skip to Q3 and Q4.  

If your response was “all female suspects” or “both”, please respond to Q2:

Q2. Of the total number of women arrested for assaulting an emergency worker between 1 January 2020 to 1 November 2024, how many of those women were also recorded as a victim of or potential victim of a domestic incident? 

Q3. In how many of the crimes recorded for a female suspect for assaulting an emergency worker, was the suspect flagged with a domestic violence marker associated with their current or former partner, where their current or former partner was the perpetrator of domestic violence? 

By this I mean the suspect who assaulted an emergency worker had previously been flagged with a domestic violence marker where she is recognised as at risk of DVA. 

For information and definitions of domestic abuse indicators and domestic abuse flags, I am sharing this document from the HMICFRS. 

Q4. In how many of the crimes recorded for a female suspect for assaulting an emergency worker, was a restraining order, a protective order, a non-molestation order, or an occupation order in place at the suspect’s address against the suspect’s current or former partner?

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 600 records over the timeframe to determine the number flagged with a domestic violence marker and whether a restraining order, a protective order, a non-molestation order, or an occupation order was in place at the time, 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). I may be able to provide a response to Questions 1 and 2 of your request if you resubmit and omit Questions 3 and 4.  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.