FOI 1010-2024/25- Community resolution to crime

Request:

Q1. How many cases did you have in the 2024 calendar year where a crime was resolved when the offender was identified, aged under 18, and agreed to a Community Resolution, where there was a Community Remedy such as a local rehabilitative or diversionary activity?

Q2. For those cases referenced in Q.1 provide a table show the type of local rehabilitative or diversionary activity and then the number of people that have accepted that course of action and the offence that they had admitted to.

So for example the answers might state:

Total number 100.

Painting park benches 50 (40 criminal damage, 10 possession of cannabis) Building bird boxes 50 (50 assault cases)

Q3. For each type of activity could you please provide me with any resource that you hold that is provided to either the crime victim or the person who will embark on the activity that explains exactly what the activity is and how they are expected to complete it.

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.

In order to retrieve the requested information, it would be necessary to manually review all crimes with an offender who was under 18, where the outcome was ‘Community Resolution’ or ‘diversionary’ to establish the type of local rehabilitative or diversionary activity, if they accepted such activity and how they are expected to complete the activity, which 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). However, we may be able to provide some information for part 1 of your request if you resubmit and omit part 2 and 3.  If you wish to discuss this please do not hesitate to contact me.