FOI 0052-2025/26 Child Sexual Exploitation

Request
a) The number of cases with a 'CSE flag' applied for the calendar years 2020 - 2024.
b) A breakdown by ethnicity of perpetrators for those cases applied a CSE flag.
c) The number of “live” group-based CSE investigations led by your force for the years 2020 - 2024, including those progressing through the criminal justice system. “Group based”, in this context, means those crimes involving two or more offenders. If possible, broken down by the number of individuals in each “group”/gang.
d) The number of safeguarding referrals received 2020 - 2024 for children because of sexual exploitation concerns.
e) The number of Child Abduction Warning Notices (CAWN) issued to adults 2014 - 2025, and a breakdown by ethnicity of those presented with one.

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 relation to Question 4, safeguarding referrals are not generally received by North Yorkshire Police (NYP). NYP are a statutory agency in relation to ‘Working Together’ and work with local authorities and health partners to screen all referrals received by all agencies. NYP make referrals using Public Protection Notices (PPNs). However they are not searchable by ‘categories of harm’ (which would include Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE)). It is therefore not possible to determine the number of referrals relating to CSE without a manual review, which would exceed the time 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). I may be able to provide a response to Questions 1, 2, 3 and 5 if you resubmit your request, omitting Question 4.  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.