FOI OSMAN Warnings (0699-2022/23)

Request

For each calendar year 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021 and for the period 1st January 2022 to 15th November 2022, please tell me:
Q1. The total number of threat to life warning notices, also known as Osman warnings, issued by your force
Q2. How many of the threat to life warning notices issued by your force to people aged under 18?
Q3. How many of the threat to life warning notices were issued to men and how many were issued to women?
If you are unable to break down the figures to show the number of threat to life warning notices issued to under 18s, or how many were issued to men and how many were issued to women, please answer question 1 only.
Q4. The number of threat to life disruption notices issued by your force (i.e. notices issued to potential perpetrators where there is credible intelligence they are planning to harm another person).

Response

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 located information to you.

Q1 & 3. Please see the below table which shows the total number of threat to life warning notices, also known as Osman warnings, issued by North Yorkshire Police from 1 January 2018 to 11 November 2022, broken down by year and gender.

Years	Female	Male
2018	3	4
2019	0	2
2020	0	6
2021	1	0
2022	7	48
Total	11	60

Q2. Please see the below table which shows the total number of threat to life warning notices, also known as Osman warnings, issued by North Yorkshire Police to people under 18 from 1 January 2018 to 11 November 2022, broken down by year.

Years	Over 18
2018	-
2019	-
2020	-
2021	-
2022	5
Total	5

Q4. 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, it would be necessary to manually review all records to determine if a threat to life disruption notice was issued, 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.

I have however on this occasion provided you with the information for the rest of your request as a gesture of goodwill.

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.