FOI Streamlined Forensic Reports (295-2024/25)

Request

Can you please provide information for research purpose? Any available data on Streamlined Forensic Report (SFR) written between 2013 to 2023 OR any year range available and can be produced within the times allowed by FOI:

Q1. The number of stage 1 (MG22B) for fingerprint and DNA.

Q2. The number of stage 2 SFR (MG22C and D) for fingerprint and DNA produced as a result of a challenge to initially written MG22B.

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.

If an MG22C was created after the MG22B was challenged this is not recorded within an automatically searchable field. In order to retrieve the requested information, it would be necessary to manually review all MG22C’s to determine if they had been created as a direct result of a challenge to the MG22B. this would involve reviewing thousands of files, which would exceed the time limit allowed under the Act. 

I note MG22Cs are produced as a result of challenges to evidence. MG22Ds are most often now produced to provide evidence of the recovery process - these are not the response to an MG22B.

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 you with the number of MG22B’s in relation to North Yorkshire Police Finger Prints if you resubmit your request.  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.