Freedom of Information Request: Child Pornography Searches and Convictions

The request was refused by South Yorkshire Police.

AdrianPaulBryanVince

Dear South Yorkshire Police,

Wednesday 19th April 2017

Dear Sirs

Freedom of Information Request

Please can you kindly provide myself with the following Information:

1. Between 2011 and 2015, how many Search Warrants have been carried out in regard to allegations, intelligence or tip-offs in regard to possession of online Child Pornography?

2. Of these Searches, how many found clear evidence of possession of online Child Pornography?

3. Of these, how many contained more than a handful, or significant numbers of, Category A and/or Category B images and/or videos?

4. Of those Convicted, how many were given a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (S.H.P.O. Or the earlier titled S.O.P.O.)?

5. Of those Convicted, how many had previously been Convicted of Sexual Contact Crime(s) against Children?

6. Of those Convicted, how many were later Convicted of Sexual Contact Crime(s) against Children?

If there is a Charge for this Information, please kindly let me know.

Thanking you in advance of your response.

Regards

Yours faithfully,

AdrianPaulBryanVince

FOI, South Yorkshire Police

Good afternoon

 

Thank you for your request for information from South Yorkshire Police. 

 

For a request to be a valid Freedom of Information request, legislation
states we need to have your name -   first and surname or initial and
surname will be sufficient.  Although there is an indication that your
surname may be Vince, this is not clear.  We will place this enquiry on
hold pending clarification.

 

Please see the link below for further ICO guidance regarding Section 8 of
the Freedom of Information Act.

[1]https://ico.org.uk/media/1164/recognisin...

 

Best regards

 

Martha Robinson

Information Compliance Clerk

Information Compliance Unit

Professional Standards Department

Unit 20, Churchill Way

Sheffield 35A Business Park

Chapeltown

Sheffield

S35 2PY

 

Website address - southyorks.police.uk

    

 

 

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AdrianPaulBryanVince

Dear FOI,

Thank you for your acknowlegement.

My full name is Adrian Paul Bryan-Vince

Yours sincerely,

AdrianPaulBryanVince

AdrianPaulBryanVince

Dear FOI,

Apologises for the lack of clarity in respect of one part of my FOI request.

I hereby clarify my FOI request as follows:

By "Sexual Contact Crimes" against Children, I mean Crimes such as Rape, Indecent Assault, Molestation of a Child or Children under 16, or Grooming of a Child or Children under 16 with evidenced or clear intent to commit Sexual Offences;

Furthermore, by "more than a handful" of Cat A or Cat B images, I mean at least 1% of the overall number of images, except where that 1% of images would be over 25 images (to wit, the total number of images was over 2,500);

The number of images for those under 1% and those over 1% would be very much appreciated, together with the percentage and associated numerical statistics for those with a moderate to very large total of overall images (to wit over 1,000 to potentially millions images.)

The more data the better, but I am conscious you have time limits and there would be a potential charge for a lot of information and research.

Of course, given sufficient statistics, I could work out the percentages for myself, but I will leave yourselves to decide whether or not you are willing to table all of the relevant numbers and percentages (I would suggest that an Excel table would work these out automatically).

Thanking you in advance.

Yours sincerely,

Adrian Paul Bryan-Vince

AdrianPaulBryanVince

Dear FOI,

It has now been over a month since your acknowledgement.

As you will know, FOI Requests are supposed to be Complied with within twenty (20) days.

If you need more time, it is a courtesy to request this to the Data Applicant.

Thanking you in advance.

Yours sincerely,

AdrianPaulBryanVince

FOI, South Yorkshire Police

1 Attachment

Dear Adrian Paul Bryan-Vince

 

Firstly I would like to apologise for our late response to your Freedom of
Information Request.

 

Please find attached our response.

 

Regards

 

 

Louise Holmes

South Yorkshire Police

Information Compliance Unit

Professional Standards Department

Unit 20 Sheffield 35A Business Park

Churchill Way

Sheffield

S35 2PY

 

Email - [South Yorkshire Police request email]

Tackling child sexual exploitation is a priority for the Force and it is
the responsibility of everyone to help spot the signs and say something.

For more information visit www.southyorkshire.police.uk/spotthesigns

AdrianPaulBryanVince

Dear Louise / FOI,

That response by the Public Protection Unit and yourself is actually quite incredible and entirely pathetic and wholly unprofessional and I am glad that this correspondence is in the Public Domain.

There is a complete failure here to address ANY of my FOI Questions.

It is wholly untrue and highly misleading to state that Information is Not Held when in fact it is indeed Held.

Furthermore, the so-called "Response" from your Public Protection Unit also does not even so much as answer even one part of any of my FOI Requests. I did NOT ask how many Search Warrants were Successful or Declined anywhere within my FOI Request bulleted Data Requests.

It is also unacceptable that is has taken so long to completely Not Comply with my very clearly stated FOI Requests.

Please revert to me as soon as possible when my FOI Request has been read properly and dealt with by the relevant Police Departments.

Failing that, I am hereby insisting upon an Internal Review and would then, if necessary, also refer the matter on to the Information Commissioner's Office.

Regards

Yours sincerely,

AdrianPaulBryanVince

AdrianPaulBryanVince

Dear Louise / FOI,

In view of a number of other Police Force's responses regarding Resources and Time Costings, I am hereby significant simplifying my FOI Request as follows (I have calculated that this will reduce the amount of Data required by around 70% - the change in the Time Period reduces this by 60% in itself):

1. [ During 2014 and 2015 ], how many people were Charged with Offences of Possession of Child Pornography?

2. Of those Charged, how many were Convicted?

3 [ Question removed ]

4. Of those Convicted, how many were given a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (S.H.P.O or S.O.P.O.)?

5. Of those Convicted, how many had previously been Convicted of Sexual Contact or Grooming Crime(s) against Children Under 16?

6. Of those Convicted, how many were later Convicted of Sexual Contact or Grooming Crime(s) against Children Under 16?

Thanking you in advance of your cooperation.

Yours sincerely,

AdrianPaulBryanVince

FOI, South Yorkshire Police

Good Afternoon Adrian

I can see from our FOI inbox you have emailed twice in quite quick succession. Do you wish this email in which you simplify your original request to replace the previous when you asked for an Internal Review?

I will await your decision.

Louise Holmes
Information Compliance Clerk

South Yorkshire Police
Information Compliance Unit
Unit 20
Churchill Way
Sheffield
S35 2PY

Internal T/N 711871
711787

Email - [email address]

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AdrianPaulBryanVince

Dear Louise / FOI,

As it is very unlikely that my Full FOI Request could be Complied with, I would like you to consider my very Significantly Reduced FOI Request, but please make sure that the Public Protection Unit, etc., actually read what I have written and deal with it accordingly and professionally.

Regards

Yours sincerely,

AdrianPaulBryanVince

FOI, South Yorkshire Police

2 Attachments

Dear Adrian Paul Bryan Vince

 

Please find attached our response to your Freedom of Information request.

 

Regards

 

 

Louise Holmes

South Yorkshire Police

Information Compliance Unit

Professional Standards Department

Unit 20 Sheffield 35A Business Park

Churchill Way

Sheffield

S35 2PY

 

Email - [South Yorkshire Police request email]

Tackling child sexual exploitation is a priority for the Force and it is
the responsibility of everyone to help spot the signs and say something.

For more information visit www.southyorkshire.police.uk/spotthesigns

AdrianPaulBryanVince

Dear Louise / FOI,

Aside from the considerable length of time to respond, this Response to my FOI Requests is almost totally unacceptable in its distinct lack of Information.

You are indeed in possession and/or direct access to Conviction Data.

Indeed, a number of other Police Forces have already provided Data in Response to ALL FIVE (5) Questions.

I will not tolerate any further obstruction of Receipt of this Data and therefore hereby insist on a full Internal Review.

Yours sincerely,

AdrianPaulBryanVince

FOI, South Yorkshire Police

[email address]

Dear Adrian Paul Bryan Vince

Freedom of Information Internal Review - Reference No: 20170945 (Request 20171112)

With reference to your email of 20 June 2017 requesting an internal review into the response provided under request 20170945. Firstly, please accept my apologies for the delay in responding to this request.

I accept that the contents of the email constitute an appeal following an expression of dissatisfaction following the response that was sent to you on the 19 June 2017. In my position as the Force Information Compliance Officer, I am independent of the original decision making process,

Review of the Original Decision

Your original request was for the following information: -

1. [ During 2014 and 2015 ], how many people were Charged with Offences of Possession of Child Pornography?

2. Of those Charged, how many were Convicted?

3 [ Question removed ]

4. Of those Convicted, how many were given a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (S.H.P.O or S.O.P.O.)?

5. Of those Convicted, how many had previously been Convicted of Sexual Contact or Grooming Crime(s) against Children Under 16?

6. Of those Convicted, how many were later Convicted of Sexual Contact or Grooming Crime(s) against Children Under 16

A partial response to the above questions was provided to you on 19 June 2017.

Your internal review states that you believe that the response is totally unacceptable in its distinct lack of information and that a number of other police forces have provided data in response to all five questions.

I have examined the information sourced for this request and also the response you have been provided.

Firstly, can I please advise you that the systems used for recording these figures are not generic, nor are the procedures used locally in capturing the data. It should be noted that for these reasons this forces response to your questions should not be used for the comparison purposes with any other response you may receive. At the current time, South Yorkshire Police does not have one specific system that includes all the data required to respond to your request. Conviction details, whilst recorded on the Police National Computer are not duplicated on local systems. For that reason, I am of the opinion that we would not be able to respond to your request and have outlined the reasons for this in a revised decision notice below.

REQUEST

1. [ During 2014 and 2015 ], how many people were Charged with Offences of Possession of Child Pornography?

2. Of those Charged, how many were Convicted?

3 [ Question removed ]

4. Of those Convicted, how many were given a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (S.H.P.O or S.O.P.O.)?

5. Of those Convicted, how many had previously been Convicted of Sexual Contact or Grooming Crime(s) against Children Under 16?

6. Of those Convicted, how many were later Convicted of Sexual Contact or Grooming Crime(s) against Children Under 16?

RESPONSE
Section 17 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 requires South Yorkshire Police, when refusing to provide such information (because the information is exempt), to provide you the applicant with a notice which:

a.states that fact,
b.specifies the exemption in question and
c.states (if that would not otherwise be apparent) why the exemption applies.

The following exemption applies to the disclosure of the information:

Section 12(2) – Exemption where cost of compliance exceeds appropriate limit

The initial search to locate the number of individuals charged identified 92 nominals recorded on the crime system. Once this list has been provided, each of the records will need to be reviewed on the crime system, the case preparation system and also the Police National Computer to identify the information to respond to questions 2, 5 and 6.

Due to the need to examine each record in full, an average time of 15 minutes per nominal is required. This equates to a total of 23 hours. Therefore this process to locate, retrieve and review all necessary information would exceed the Appropriate Limit.

If you are still dissatisfied with how your request has been handled, you can raise this with the Information Commissioner. Contact details below: -

Information Commissioner’s Office
Water Lane
Wilmslow,
Cheshire, SK9 5AF.
Telephone: 08456 306060 or 01625 545745
Website: www.ico.org.uk

Yours sincerely

Gill Bower-Lissaman
Information Compliance Officer
South Yorkshire Police
Information Compliance Unit
Professional Standards Department
Unit 20 Sheffield 35A Business Park
Churchill Way
Sheffield
S35 2PY

Email – [email address]

Please note that police forces in the United Kingdom are routinely required to provide information and statistics to government bodies and the recording criteria is set nationally. However, the systems used for recording these figures are not generic, nor are the procedures used locally in capturing the data. It should be noted that for these reasons this forces response to your questions should not be used for the comparison purposes with any other response you may receive.

South Yorkshire Police provides you the right to request a re-examination of your case under its review procedure (copy enclosed). If you decide to request such a review and having followed the Constabulary’s full process you are still dissatisfied, then you have the right to direct your comments to the Information Commissioner who will give it consideration.

The South Yorkshire Police in complying with their statutory duty under sections 1 and 11 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to release the enclosed information will not breach the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. However, the rights of the copyright owner of the enclosed information will continue to be protected by law. Applications for the copyright owner’s written permission to reproduce any part of the attached information should be addressed to The Force Solicitor, South Yorkshire Police, Police Headquarters, Snig Hill, Sheffield, S3 8LY.

AdrianPaulBryanVince

Dear Gill / FOI,

My FOI Request made on 19th April 2017 and it is now 26th September 2017!

This is a fucking joke!

You have not complied with the Freedom of Information Act in any way ,to any degree!

I am therefore filing a Formal Complaint with the Information Commissioner.

Yours sincerely,

AdrianPaulBryanVince