Essex Dog Attacks
Dear Essex Police,
I write to you under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 requesting information on the number of dog attacks recorded in Essex by Essex Police.
Would you please send over statistics for each of Essex's 14 police districts (Colchester, Tendring, Maldon, Braintree, Uttlesford, Chelmsford, Harlow, Epping, Brentwood, Thurrock, Basildon, Castle Point, Rochford, and Southend) for the individual years 2018 to 2023 (inclusive):
• The total number of dog attacks
• The number of dog attacks resulting in arrests
• The number of dog attacks resulting in destruction of the dog
• The number of dog attacks resulting in charges being brought against an individual
Yours faithfully,
Daniel Rees
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[1]https://www.essex.police.uk/foi-ai/af/ac...
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1. https://www.essex.police.uk/foi-ai/af/ac...
Thank you for your request for information, which has been logged under
the above reference number.
Essex Police will endeavour to respond to your application within 20
working days, as set out within the Freedom of Information Act 2000
(FOIA). If a time extension is to be applied to your request, you will be
informed; the reason for the extension will also be provided.
Please note that Essex Police may refuse detailed or multiple requests
that are submitted at the same time, as per [1]Section 14 of the FOIA.
Furthermore, if the information sought is already publicly available, you
may be redirected to our publication scheme:
[2]https://www.essex.police.uk/foi-ai/af/ac... or other
official links, such as the [3]PFCC, [4]Home Office or the [5]Office for
National Statistics
Should you need to contact us whilst your information request is being
processed, please email [6][Essex Police request email], quoting
the above reference, and a member of the team will assist.
Freedom of Information
Information Rights Team | Information Compliance & Assurance
Information Management Dept. | Professionalism Command
Essex Police
Email: [7][Essex Police request email]
Telephone: 01245 452647 (Open office hours, Monday to Friday or
answerphone facility available)
Address: Information Rights Team, Information Management Dept., Essex
Police HQ, PO Box 2, Chelmsford CM2 6DA
Services offered by Information Rights Team: [8]Information Rights | Essex
Police
Find out what is happening in your area: [9]Your area | Essex Police
Contact Us: [10]Help us help you | Essex Police
Report non-emergency crime online: [11]Report | Essex Police
How do we use your data: [12]Privacy notice | Essex Police
Thank you for your Freedom of information (FOI) request logged under the
above reference.
The Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) places two duties on public
authorities:
Unless exemptions apply, the first duty (at [1]Section 1(1)(a) is to
confirm or deny whether the information specified in a request is held.
The second duty (at [2]Section 1(1)(b) is to disclose information that
has been confirmed as being held.
However, where exemptions are relied upon ([3]Section 17 of FOIA), there
is a requirement to provide the applicant with an explanation either:
a) stating the fact
b) detailing the exemption(s) in question and
c) why the exemption applies (if not apparent).
Information Request – which has been numbered to assist with the
disclosure
I write to you under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 requesting
information on the number of dog attacks recorded in Essex by Essex
Police.
Would you please send over statistics for each of Essex's 14 police
districts (Colchester, Tendring, Maldon, Braintree, Uttlesford,
Chelmsford, Harlow, Epping, Brentwood, Thurrock, Basildon, Castle Point,
Rochford, and Southend) for the individual years 2018 to 2023 (inclusive):
1. The total number of dog attacks
2. The number of dog attacks resulting in arrests
3. The number of dog attacks resulting in destruction of the dog
4. The number of dog attacks resulting in charges being brought against
an individual
FOI Duty
First Duty – Essex Police holds some of the information relating to your
request
Second Duty – See below
Fact - It is not possible to extract and verify all the data in your
request
Exemption - [4]Section 12(1)
Refusal - [5]Section 17(5) of FOIA
Reasoning – Essex Police are unable to provide a comprehensive data report
to meet this request as the data is not available in a readily extractable
format, nor is it held on a central log.
With regard to Question 2, Essex Police are unable to report on the number
of recorded dog attack incidents that resulted in an arrest as this is not
readily extractable information from our crime and incident recording
systems. To attempt to answer this question would require a manual review
of each dog attack incident record in the requested time period to
ascertain whether an arrest relating to the incident was recorded,
extracting this information and then collating the data into a bespoke
report.
To establish if information is held would, therefore, exceed the time and
cost limits under the FOIA and would qualify as the creation of data as
the results cannot be processed by means of purely sorting or filtering
data sources or running a database query tool. There is no requirement
under the act to create data purely to answer FOI requests.
Duty to assist – When refusing a request on cost ([6]Section 12(1)/12(2)),
outside of the act and in effort to assist we can provide the following
Essex Police can however provide the following information:
Caveat: The links to information are correct as at 09 April 2024
To address Questions 1 and 3, please see the following article available
via our publication scheme that includes data on the numbers of recorded
dog attack incidents and the numbers of seized dogs that were destroyed
between 2019 and 2023:
[7]Dog Attack Incidents and Seizures of Dangerous Dogs 2019 to 2023 |
Essex Police
To address Question 4, please see the following article that gives the
numbers of recorded Dog Causing Injury offences with outcome by financial
year between 2017/18 and 2021/22:
[8]Dog Attack Data 2018-2022 | Essex Police
The following articles may also be of interest:
[9]Dog Attack Incidents 2022-2023 | Essex Police
[10]Dog Attacks 2018 to 2023 | Essex Police
[11]Types of Dogs Seized by the Police for Being Dangerously Out of
Control 2019 to 2021 | Essex Police
Please note the above request will be included within our [12]Publication
Scheme.
Thank you for your interest in Essex Police.
Freedom of Information
Information Rights Team | Information Compliance & Assurance
Information Management Dept. | Professionalism Command
Essex Police
Email: [13][Essex Police request email]
Telephone: 01245 452647 (Open office hours, Monday to Friday or
answerphone facility available)
Address: Information Rights Team, Information Management Dept., Essex
Police HQ, PO Box 2, Chelmsford CM2 6DA
Services offered by Information Rights Team: [14]Information Rights |
Essex Police
Find out what is happening in your area: [15]Your area | Essex Police
Contact Us: [16]Help us help you | Essex Police
Report non-emergency crime online: [17]Report | Essex Police
How do we use your data: [18]Privacy notice | Essex Police
FOI requests
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access information from a public body | ICO and please review our
publications regarding various subjects through [20]Accessing information
| Essex Police to prevent unnecessary requests.
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Under [21]Section 17(7)(a)(b) FOIA complaints should be submitted within
40 working days from the date of this response and should be addressed to
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[22][Essex Police request email] we will conduct a review to
investigate your complaint and endeavour to reply within 40 working days.
Please explain which aspect of the disclosure you are not satisfied with,
and if your complaint concerns the decision to apply an exemption.
If you are still dissatisfied following our review, you have the right
under the [23]Section 50 FOIA to complain directly to the Information
Commissioner. Before considering your complaint, the Information
Commissioner would normally expect you to have exhausted the complaints
procedures provided by Essex Police. The Information Commissioner can be
contacted at: Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water
Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF or via [24]Home | ICO
From: Info Rights Freedom Essex <[Essex Police request email]>
Sent: 08 April 2024 10:48
To: Daniel Rees <[FOI #1113750 email]>
Subject: FOI 20039 Data by District on Dog Attacks 2018 to 2023
Thank you for your request for information, which has been logged under
the above reference number.
Essex Police will endeavour to respond to your application within 20
working days, as set out within the Freedom of Information Act 2000
(FOIA). If a time extension is to be applied to your request, you will be
informed; the reason for the extension will also be provided.
Please note that Essex Police may refuse detailed or multiple requests
that are submitted at the same time, as per [25]Section 14 of the FOIA.
Furthermore, if the information sought is already publicly available, you
may be redirected to our publication scheme:
[26]https://www.essex.police.uk/foi-ai/af/ac... or other
official links, such as the [27]PFCC, [28]Home Office or the [29]Office
for National Statistics
Should you need to contact us whilst your information request is being
processed, please email [30][Essex Police request email], quoting
the above reference, and a member of the team will assist.
Freedom of Information
Information Rights Team | Information Compliance & Assurance
Information Management Dept. | Professionalism Command
Essex Police
Email: [31][Essex Police request email]
Telephone: 01245 452647 (Open office hours, Monday to Friday or
answerphone facility available)
Address: Information Rights Team, Information Management Dept., Essex
Police HQ, PO Box 2, Chelmsford CM2 6DA
Services offered by Information Rights Team: [32]Information Rights |
Essex Police
Find out what is happening in your area: [33]Your area | Essex Police
Contact Us: [34]Help us help you | Essex Police
Report non-emergency crime online: [35]Report | Essex Police
How do we use your data: [36]Privacy notice | Essex Police
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