FOI Missing Children (0724-2022/23)

Request

Q1. I am requesting information about the number missing children (under 18's) in the years 2016-2021 broken down by ethnicity.
Q2. Additionally, a breakdown of time taken to find the missing children from 2016-2021 broken down by ethnicity.
Q3. Also, a breakdown of budget spent per child from 2016-2021 with details about the victim and their ethnicity.
Q4. Finally,  I am requesting how long is spent on a missing children's case before closing from 2016-2021, I am requesting this information presented as per child, or if possible, already broken down by ethnicity.

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. In order to retrieve the requested information for Q2 we would need to manually review each case where a child was reported missing to determine the length of the time taken to locate them, which would exceed the time limit allowed under the Act. 

For Q3, we would not be able to accurately determine how much money was spent per child per investigation.

For Q4, this question is vague and could be open to interpretation. If you would like to refine your request to include Q1 and a description of what you require we may be able to provide some information for you.

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 can provide you the information for Q1 if you resubmit your request and omit Q2,3 &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.