Dear Sir/Madam

RE: FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000 - REQUEST FOR INFORMATION - Our Ref: 006576/20

With reference to your e-mail received 22/12/2020 requesting information:

1) Please provide a breakdown by month of reported metal thefts for the periods January 1 2019 to December 31 2019 and January 1 2020 to current date.

2) Please provide a breakdown of thefts for these periods by whether they relate to infrastructure or non-infrastructure.

3) Please provide a further breakdown if available on the type of metal stolen (e.g. copper, lead) and the target of the theft (e.g. vehicle, church, commercial building etc).

This is to inform you that Northamptonshire Police are currently dealing with high levels of demand for information. Every effort will be made to ensure that you receive an appropriate response on time, however, we may not be able to complete the response to your request within 20 working days. The ICO is aware and we are currently enacting a recovery plan.

On behalf of Northamptonshire Police, I do apologise for any inconvenience that may be caused by this delay and if you wish to discuss this any further then please contact the undersigned.

Northamptonshire Police provides a review and appeals procedure within the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. If you decide to make an appeal and, having followed the full process you are still dissatisfied, you will then have the right to direct your comments to the Information Commissioner who will give due consideration to the matter. See Appendix 'a' attached.

Northamptonshire Police routinely publish information on our website via the Publication Scheme. The aim of the Publication Scheme is to promote openness and transparency by voluntarily placing information into the public arena.
The Disclosure Log contains copies of information that has been disclosed by Northamptonshire Police in response to requests made under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. Whilst it is not possible to publish all responses we will endeavour to publish those where we feel that the information disclosed is in the wider public interest. The Disclosure Log will be updated once responses have been sent to the requester.

I have provided the relevant link below.

https://www.northants.police.uk/foi-ai/a...

Yours sincerely
Kishore Karavadra
P0391 Kishore Karavadra| Freedom of Information Researcher
Force Information Unit | Professional Standards Department
Northamptonshire Police

Telephone: 101 | Ext No. 344574/341172 - (If calling from outside Northamptonshire, please call 03000 111 222)
Email: [email address]<mailto:[email address]>
Address: Force Headquarters, Wootton Hall, Wootton Hall Park, Northampton NN4 0JQ

Northamptonshire Police "Putting Communities First"

The content of this email should be treated as RESTRICTED unless otherwise indicated

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Dear  Sir/Madam   

RE: FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000 - REQUEST FOR INFORMATION Our Ref: 006576/20

With reference to your e-mail received 24/11/2020 requesting information
reproduced below:

1) Please provide a breakdown by month of reported metal thefts for the
periods January 1 2019 to December 31 2019 and January 1 2020 to current
date.

2) Please provide a breakdown of thefts for these periods by whether they
relate to infrastructure or non-infrastructure.

3) Please provide a further breakdown if available on the type of metal
stolen (e.g. copper, lead) and the target of the theft (e.g. vehicle,
church, commercial building etc).

The information you are requesting is not held by Northamptonshire Police
in any reasonably retrievable form. The only means of establishing
information of the nature you are requesting would be by way of manual
examination of each metal theft record to see what metal was taken. This
is because Metal Type isn’t a mandatory field. 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 usually required to
retrieve that information.

It is my assessment that the cost of providing you with the information
requested would exceed the 'appropriate level' as set out in the Freedom
of Information (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004.

My assessment is that it would cost 488 (number of records) x 3 minutes
each (minimum) = over 24 hours at £25 per hour to respond to your request,
which exceeds the 'appropriate limit' (currently £450 for 'prescribed
costs').

In view of the above, and in accordance with the provisions of the Freedom
of Information Act 2000, please take this letter as a Refusal Notice.

You may wish to refine and resubmit your request so that it reduces the
costs shown above and is then within the 'appropriate limit' shown above.
(I cannot think of a means to refine the request in order to provide the
information you are seeking) but if you would like some further
information about how to proceed with your request then please contact the
undersigned.

Although excess cost removes the Force’s obligations under the Freedom of
Information Act, as a gesture of goodwill, I have supplied information,
relevant to your request, which was retrieved or available before it was
realised that the fees limit would be exceeded. I trust this is helpful,
but it does not affect our legal right to rely on the fees regulations for
the remainder of your request.

Occurrence Total
Created Crimes
YYYY-MM Recorded
2019-01 18
2019-02 19
2019-03 20
2019-04 17
2019-05 15
2019-06 12
2019-07 9
2019-08 15
2019-09 14
2019-10 13
2019-11 15
2019-12 19
2020-01 45
2020-02 30
2020-03 31
2020-04 9
2020-05 9
2020-06 17
2020-07 16
2020-08 25
2020-09 28
2020-10 35
2020-11 40
2020-12 17
Sum: 488

Metal Infrastructure Metal Non
thefts   thefts Infrastructure
2019-01 3   2019-01 16
2019-02 5   2019-02 15
2019-03 6   2019-03 14
2019-04 3   2019-04 14
2019-05 3   2019-05 12
2019-06 5   2019-06 7
2019-07 5   2019-07 4
2019-08 2   2019-08 13
2019-09 2   2019-09 12
2019-10 5   2019-10 8
2019-11 2   2019-11 13
2019-12 9   2019-12 10
2020-01 14   2020-01 31
2020-02 4   2020-02 26
2020-03 8   2020-03 23
2020-04 3   2020-04 6
2020-05 1   2020-05 8
2020-06 3   2020-06 14
2020-07 5   2020-07 11
2020-08 7   2020-08 18
2020-09 9   2020-09 19
2020-10 10   2020-10 25
2020-12 8   2020-11 40
Sum: 122   2020-12 9
      Sum: 368

Location Premises Type 2019 2020
Commercial   1
Commercial-Builders
merchant 1 1
Commercial-Building site 13 12
Commercial-Car park (open
air)   5
Commercial-Factory 9 7
Commercial-Farm 8 5
Commercial-Industrial
estate 12 12
Commercial-Office 3  
Commercial-Other
(commercial) 19 28
Commercial-Power station 1  
Commercial-Utility -
telecom   1
Commercial-Warehouse 7 1
Commercial-Workshop 2 4
Dwelling 1  
Dwelling-Farmhouse 2  
Dwelling-Flat 5 5
Dwelling-House 25 49
Dwelling-Other (dwelling) 1 4
Dwelling-Outbuilding -
Office   1
Dwelling-Outbuilding -
Other 2 2
Dwelling-Shed (Garden
Shed) 1  
Education-School 3  
Education-University 1  
Hospitality-Hotel/motel 1 4
Leisure-Golf course 1  
Leisure-Leisure/swimming
centre   1
Leisure-Nature reserve 1  
Leisure-Other (leisure) 1 1
Medical-Hospital 2 2
Medical-Mental health
unit 1  
Public
building-Church/religious
building 8 1
Public building-Community
centre 1  
Public building-Local
authority building 1  
Public building-Other
(public building) 1  
Public/open place   1
Public/open place-Car
park (multi storey)   1
Public/open place-Car
park (open air) 14 46
Public/open
place-Churchyard 1  
Public/open place-Country
lane 1  
Public/open place-Field 3 3
Public/open
place-Footpath/bridleway 1  
Public/open place-Lay-by   1
Public/open place-Lorry
park 1  
Public/open place-Other
open space 5 6
Public/open
place-Park/garden 3 2
Public/open
place-Pavement 1 2
Public/open
place-River/canal 1  
Public/open
place-Street/road 13 86
Public/open
place-Tip/recycling
centre 1 1
Shop-Antique shop 1  
Shop-Car sales   1
Shop-Furniture shop 1  
Shop-Garden centre 1  
Shop-Repair garage   1
Shop-Supermarket 2  
Travel   1
Not Stated 2 3

Due to the different methods of recording information across 43 forces, a
specific response from one constabulary should not be seen as an
indication of what information could be supplied (within cost) by another.
Systems used for recording these figures are not generic, nor are the
procedures used locally in capturing the data. For this reason responses
between forces may differ, and should not be used for comparative
purposes.

Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and
complete. However, it is important to note that the data has been
extracted from a number of data sources used by forces for police
purposes. The detail collected to respond specifically to your request is
subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large scale recording system.
As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes
and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when interpreting
the data.

The figures provided therefore are our best interpretation of relevance of
data to your request, but you should be aware that the collation of
figures for ad hoc requests may have limitations and this should be taken
into account when the data is used

I trust you find this information to be satisfactory but if you have any
further queries please do not hesitate to contact me.

Northamptonshire Police provides a review and appeals procedure within the
terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. If you decide to make an
appeal and, having followed the full process you are still dissatisfied,
you will then have the right to direct your comments to the Information
Commissioner who will give due consideration to the matter. See Appendix
'a' attached.

Yours sincerely

Gemma Barrie

C1374 Gemma Barrie| Freedom of Information Officer and Researcher

Force Information Unit | Professional Standards Department

Northamptonshire Police

Telephone: 101 | Ext No. 343701/ 341172 - (If calling from outside
Northamptonshire, please call 03000 111 222)

Email: [1][email address]

Address: Force Headquarters, Wootton Hall, Wootton Hall Park, Northampton
NN4 0JQ

Northamptonshire Police "Putting Communities First"

The content of this email should be treated as RESTRICTED unless otherwise
indicated

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