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Request:
I would like to obtain any data from all the North Yorkshire districts, if possible, please. If not, I would specifically like York.
For each of the districts please could you provide me with the following information:
- number of dog bites from 1980 to the present day in calendar years (or as far back as the data goes)
- where the bite took place
- events surrounding the dog bite
- details of the breed of the dog
- cause of the bite
- age of the victim
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 all crimes for Owner or person in charge allowing dog to be dangerously out of control in any place injuring any person or assistance dog for the requested timeframe, to establish the events surrounding the crime, the location to which the crime occurred, the dog breed, the cause of the bite and the age of the victim, which would mean reading through thousands of reports, 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 in relation to the total number of crimes related to Owner or person in charge allowing dog to be dangerously out of control in any place injuring any person or assistance dog for the timeframe requested. 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.