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Request:
Q1. Since 1 January 2018, on how many occasions has the North Yorkshire Police obtained the 'communications data' (e.g. Call Data Records, or CDRs) of individuals from mobile telecoms providers, either directly or indirectly through another agency (e.g. Met Police, Home Office, etc.)? Please break this down into:
a) number of separate occasions these were requested
b) number of individual phone numbers for which CDRs were requested
c) the legal basis for the requests (please specify the number of requests per legal basis. For example, “total requests: 3, Investigatory Powers Act – 2, Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 -- 1”)
d) the particular legislation used e.g. PACE, RIPA, IP Act (number of instances as a percentage of the total)
e) what percentage of requests for that data that were rejected, and the reasons for the rejection.
For guidance, CDRs are part of 'communications data' from a telecoms company. Please see this document, particularly page 13: https://eur02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.publishing.service.gov.uk%2Fgovernment%2Fuploads%2Fsystem%2Fuploads%2Fattachment_data%2Ffile%2F426248%2FAcquisition_and_Disclosure_of_Communications_Data_Code_of_Practice_March_2015.pdf&data=05%7C01%7CCivilDisclosure%40northyorkshire.police.uk%7C0ce1dd6536a542dcfe8608db9d93f1eb%7C2c84bc9193af476e9721cdad67cb3ead%7C0%7C1%7C638277030968687458%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C2000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=2MsPK5q6HiNmESq6QiNkdgRo6wh6imJLSBnoM%2FPD4Rw%3D&reserved=0
Q2. Since 1 January 2018, has the North Yorkshire police purchased or otherwise received (including free of charge) any anonymised mobile phone communications data sets (otherwise known as anonymised CDRs), be they of individuals or aggregate data. (For your information, an example of commercial 'big data' for mobile phones can be found here: https://eur02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fthenextweb.com%2Fuk%2F2012%2F10%2F09%2Ftelefonica-launches-big-data-analysis-service-for-business-and-local-authorities%2F&data=05%7C01%7CCivilDisclosure%40northyorkshire.police.uk%7C0ce1dd6536a542dcfe8608db9d93f1eb%7C2c84bc9193af476e9721cdad67cb3ead%7C0%7C1%7C638277030968687458%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C2000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=i6PMXfsQjXMzAe%2F6Y00RpaGoTTMQqjIH%2FFDyghuZOKQ%3D&reserved=0)
a) If yes, please state on how many occasions and when
b) From which telecoms providers the communications data originated
c) If purchased via a third-party, please specify which company
d) The intended use of that data
e) The total amount spent, if anything
f) If not purchased but nonetheless shared, please state the name of the body that provided the data
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 crime records from 01 January 2018 until current day, to ascertain if any call data records were obtained either directly or indirectly, which would mean reading through thousands of records, 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.