Policing priorities by type of crime

Our Ref: 26 June 2020 - NY5012

I write in connection with your request for information that was received by the Office of the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner for North Yorkshire (OPFCC) on 2nd December 2019.Please accept our apologies for the delay in providing you with a response, which was originally due to staffing resources and has been more recently due to the ongoing challenges associated with Covid-19, including the difficulties of delivering business as usual while working in business continuity mode.

Request

I note you seek access to the following information:

with reference to:

• https://apccs.police.uk/role-of-the-pcc/
• https://www.gov.uk/government/collection… and
• https://www.gov.uk/government/publicatio…

Please respond to the following:

1. Please provide the list of priorities, by type of crime, which your force is instructed to abide by when allocating investigative resource; specifically to include the priorities of social media crime, wildlife crime, domestic terrorism, and breaches of the Hunting Act.

2. I note that breaches of the Hunting Act are not recordable crimes as per the police/Home Office Orange Book. Why is that omission in place, and do you have plans to make hunting crime recordable for your force to deliver open, transparent and fair policing?

3. Are there any Operations running in your force or as a cross-border collaboration with other forces which target hunt saboteurs?

4. Are there, or have there ever been, any Operations running or about to run in your force or as a cross-border collaboration with other forces which focus in any way on information gathering/sharing for the purpose of classifying/recommending for classification and/or proscription of the Hunt Saboteur Association as Domestic Terrorists?

5. Are there, or have there ever been, any discussions between you and/or your office/staff with any other police force/government agency/political party/the Home Office and/or members of the current Conservative government which focus(ed) in any way on information gathering/sharing for the purpose of classifying/recommending for classification and/or proscription of the Hunt Saboteur Association as Domestic Terrorists?

6. Are there, or have there ever been, any discussions between you and/or your office/staff with the Countryside Alliance and/or Vote OK (https://www.vote-ok.co.uk) which focus(ed) in any way on information gathering/sharing for the purpose of classifying/recommending for classification and/or proscription of the Hunt Saboteur Association as Domestic Terrorists?

Response

Extent and Result of Searches to Locate Information

To locate the information relevant to your request searches were conducted within the OPFCC,

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.

The broad scope of the request would require us to have to examine hundreds of different information files.

Pursuant to Section 17(5) of the Freedom of Information Act this letter acts as a Refusal Notice.

Due to the broad scope of the question, I am unable to suggest how you may refine your request and still received the information within the cost threshold.

If you wish to discuss this please do not hesitate to contact me.