FOI 0964-2025/26- Parcel thefts

Request:

Q1. Theft of parcels

For the most recent 24-month period for which data is available, please provide the total number of recorded crimes involving the theft of delivered parcels from:

- Residential doorsteps

- Designated "safe places" (e.g. porches, sheds, bins, garages).

Please include:

- A monthly breakdown (month and year)

- The crime classification or offence code used to record these incidents.

Q2. Criminal Damage Associated With Deliveries

For the same 24-month period, please provide the total number of recorded incidents of criminal damage to residential property where:

- The damage was recorded as being caused by delivery personnel

- The damage occurred during or immediately following a delivery.

Please include:

- A monthly breakdown (month and year)

- The crime classification or offence code used.

Additional Information

If the term "porch piracy" is not used by your force, please interpret this request using the closest equivalent offence categories (for example, theft from outside a dwelling).

Please provide the information in CSV or Excel format, where possible.

Response: 

Extent of Searches to Locate Information

Following receipt of your request searches were conducted within North Yorkshire Police to locate relevant information. 

Decision

Q1. The information you have requested is published on the North Yorkshire Police website under the following link:

FOI 0362-2025/26- Parcel theft | North Yorkshire Police

I have therefore decided to exempt providing you with a response to question 1 pursuant to Section 21 Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the Act). Please see the exemption explanation below.

Section 17 of the Act requires North Yorkshire Police, when refusing to provide such information (because the information is exempt) to provide you the applicant with a notice which: (a) states that fact, (b) specifies the exemption in question and (c) states (if that would not otherwise be apparent) why the exemption applies.

Section 21 – Information Reasonably Accessible by Other Means

Section 21 is an absolute class based exemption and I am not required to consider the harm or public interest when applying this exemption.

Q2. 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 criminal damage crimes for the timeframe specified to establish if a delivery driver was responsible or if the damage occurred during or immediately following a delivery. This manual process would mean reading through hundreds 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). We may be able to provide you with the number of incidents within a specified time frame where key words are recorded in the MO Summary field, for example “delivery driver”. You would be required to provide a list of Key Words for us to search upon. However the accuracy of these results rely on an Officer recording the specific words in the field and it is likely that further manual reads would be required in order to ensure the results fit to your request (i.e. person working at the time of the incident). Due to the above I do not feel that results would be reliable. Please do not hesitate to contact me further to discuss or submit a new request.

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.