Reports of dogs attacking/worrying livestock

Response to this request is long overdue. By law, under all circumstances, Essex Police should have responded by now (details). You can complain by requesting an internal review.

Dear Essex Police,

Could you please supply the number of reports of dogs attacking or worrying livestock in the Tendring area in the last 3 years, broken by down by village.

If this is too wide an area and would exceed cost limits, then please restrict to just the Wix, Bradfield and Mistley areas.

Yours faithfully,

Richard Scott

data foi, Essex Police

Classification: NOT PROTECTIVELY MARKED

Thank you for your enquiry which has been logged under the above
reference.

Under the Freedom of Information Act we are required to reply within 20
working days but given the current very high number of requests being
received this may not be possible.

We will reply as soon as possible and please accept our apologies for
the inconvenience any delay may cause.

Steve Grayton
Information Officer
Data Protection & Freedom of Information Information Management
Strategic Change Management Department Essex Police Headquarters PO Box
2, Springfield, Chelmsford, CM2 6DA
Tel: 0300 333 4444 Ext 54551
Fax: 01245 452256
Email : data[Essex Police request email]
Personal email: [email address]
Website: www.essex.police.uk
Hours of work : Mon - Thurs 7:30 to 15:30 Fri 7:30 to 15:00

show quoted sections

Steve Grayton, Essex Police

Classification: NOT PROTECTIVELY MARKED

Thank you for your enquiry which has been logged under the above
reference. Having completed my enquiries I am able to respond as follows:

Could you please supply the number of reports of dogs attacking or
worrying livestock in the Tendring area in the last 3 years, broken by
down by village.

If this is too wide an area and would exceed cost limits, then please
restrict to just the Wix, Bradfield and Mistley areas.

The Crime Recording System used by Essex Police records the number of
offences in accordance with The Home Office Counting Rules
[1]http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/countru... rather than reports
of dogs "attacking or worrying livestock" which is what you have
requested.

Reports of dogs "attacking or worrying livestock" under the Dogs
(Protection of Livestock) Act 1953 is not a recordable offence and we do
not keep that data. The Dangerous Dogs Act 1991 covers a number of
offences but the two recordable crimes that we record are (1) allowing dog
to be dangerously out of control in a public place and injuring any person
and (2) allowing dog to enter any private place and injure any person.

Would this information, rather than number of reports be of any use to
you?

In respect the wording of your request - In terms of Freedom of
Information, I am afraid that the specific information you were seeking
access to is not held by Essex Police in what is referred to as in a
readily accessible format.

For the purposes of section 17 (5) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000
(FOIA) this response serves as a formal notification of refusal of your
request on the basis that Essex Police does not hold, for the purposes of
FOIA, the specific data in a readily accessible format. That is to say,
this data is not extractable from a central database or held in a
spreadsheet. To ascertain whether this information is held would entail a
manual search of Essex Police records; a process which would be likely to
exceed the appropriate limit (as mentioned at section 12 of the FOIA) in
terms of cost/time (*450 or the equivalent in time of 18 hours).

I am sorry that we are unable to provide the information requested.

Steve Grayton
Information Officer
Data Protection & Freedom of Information
Information Management
Strategic Change Management Department
Essex Police Headquarters
PO Box 2, Springfield, Chelmsford, CM2 6DA
Tel: 0300 333 4444 Ext 54551
Fax: 01245 452256
Email : data[Essex Police request email]
Personal email: [email address]
Website: www.essex.police.uk
Hours of work : Mon - Thurs 7:30 to 15:30
Fri 7:30 to 15:00

If you are dissatisfied with the handling of your FOI request, you have
the right to ask for an internal review. Internal review requests should
be submitted within two months of the date of receipt of the response to
your original request and should be addressed to the Senior Information
Officer at the above address.

If you complaint refers to a decision to apply an exemption it would
assist the review if you would outline the reasons why you feel the
exemption does not apply.

If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have
the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a
decision. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: Information
Commissioner*s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9
5AF

show quoted sections

Dear Steve Grayton,

Thanks for you reply - unfortunately, it's specifically incidents involving attacks on livestock which I'm interested in.

Yours sincerely,

Richard Scott