FOI Protests (0781-2023/24)

Request
Please provide the following information in a table in the following format in excel or csv and for the financial years 2018-19, 2019-20, 2020-21, 2021-22, and 2022-23.

Year Offences Arrests Type 1 Outcomes
18-19
19-20
20-21
21-22
22-23

Q1. The total number of offences recorded where the perpetrator has been attending or holding a protest, broken down by offence group and sub-group. Please include breaches of the peace, such as royal protests and Just Stop Oil protests.

Q2. The total number of arrests made relating to a protest.

Q3. The number of type 1 outcomes relating to a protest, defined as charge/summons

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. There is not one specific offence relating to ‘protests’ or that people are arrested under. People can be arrested for a variety of offences depending upon the circumstances and their behaviours/actions. For example, an individual could be arrested for a Public Order offence, Wilful Obstruction of the Highway, Aggravated Trespass, and so on. In order to provide any data relating to your request, all offences (inc those mentioned) would need to be manually read to see if the case file mentions that they were at a protest at the time of their arrest. 

This would mean reading through thousands of arrests, 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.