Disclosure team
Ministry of Justice
102 Petty France
London
SW1H 9AJ
xxxx.xxxxxx@xxxxxxx.xxx.xxx.xx
Stella Richardson
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx
21 June 2018
Dear Ms Richardson
Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Request – 180601006
Thank you for your request dated 1 June 2018 in which you asked for the following
information from the Ministry of Justice (MoJ):
Please could you tell me the number of adults who were convicted in an English court
for criminal offences that were committed when the offenders were below the age of
18 for each year in the 5 year period to 2017
Your request has been handled under the FOIA.
I can confirm the MoJ holds all of the information you have requested. However, to provide
as the request currently stands would exceed the cost limit set out in the FOIA.
Section 12(1) of the FOIA means public authorities are not obliged to comply with a request
for information if it estimates the cost of complying would exceed the appropriate limit. The
appropriate limit for central government is set at £600. This represents the estimated cost of
one person spending 3.5 working days determining whether the department holds the
information, and locating, retrieving and extracting the information.
Centrally held information cannot identify whether the offence was committed under the age
of 18 and the same convicted after the age of 18.
We believe that the cost of courts in England reviewing individual case files to establish the
age when the offence was committed and the age when the offender convicted would
exceed the appropriate limit, as this specific information is not held centrally by MoJ.
Consequently, we are not obliged to comply with your request.
Although we cannot answer your request at the moment, we may be able to answer a
refined request within the cost limit. You may wish to consider, for example, reducing the
scope of the request for a single year or a single court. Please be aware that we cannot
guarantee at this stage that a refined request will fall within the FOIA cost limit, or that other
exemptions will not apply.
For guidance on how to structure successful requests please refer to the ICO website on the
following li
nk: http://ico.org.uk/for_the_public/official_information
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2004/3244/pdfs/uksi_20043244_en.pdf
Appeal Rights
If you are not satisfied with this response you have the right to request an internal review by
responding in writing to one of the addresses below within two months of the date of this
response.
xxxx.xxxxxx@xxxxxxx.xxx.xxx.xx
Disclosure Team, Ministry of Justice, 10.38, 102 Petty France, London, SW1H 9AJ
You do have the right to ask the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) to investigate any
aspect of your complaint. However, please note that the ICO is likely to expect internal
complaints procedures to have been exhausted before beginning their investigation.
Yours sincerely
Kunjal Amin
Justice Statistics
2