FOI Domestic Abuse Complaints (1181-2023/24)

Request

Please provide the following information, from 2015 to the present day. Please provide monthly data on:

Q1. Number of complaints from domestic abuse victims regarding your force’s handling of their case.
Please provide this as a raw number and percentage of cases.
Q2. The outcome of the above complaints. If this is categorised, please outline what these categories are and how many cases fell into each category.
Q3. Which category each complainant falls into under the IOPC’s guidance which lays out the three following categories:
claims to be the person in relation to whom the conduct took place
claims to have been adversely affected by the conduct
claims to have witnessed the conduct
(is acting on behalf of someone who satisfies one of the above three criteria)

For the second and third bullet points, please provide this as a raw number.

Q4. How many complaints were made internally within your force regarding the handling of domestic abuse cases. Please include:
Q5. How many of the above complaints were taken forward.
Q6. The outcome of the above complaints.
Q7. The role of the individual making the complaint.
Q8. The individual the complaint was made to, for example a supervisor or the domestic abuse regional lead.
If you apply any further categories to your records regarding complaints, please also include this information.

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. Due to changes in these recording methods over the timeframe requested, it would be necessary to manually review all conduct matters. This would involve 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). 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.