Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) Request 334/22 - Theft of Building Materials
Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA)

Thank you for your email received today in which you make a request for information that Northumbria Police may hold in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

We are in the process of dealing with your request and a response should be provided to you by 24 March 2022 which is in accordance with the legislation.

Although every effort will be made to ensure a response is provided within statutory deadlines, due to current circumstances delays may be unavoidable. We apologise for any inconvenience and will endeavour to process your request as quickly as is practicable.

Yours sincerely

Information Management Unit

www.northumbria.police.uk | www.northumbria-pcc.gov.uk

'Our vision is to deliver an outstanding police service; working with communities to prevent crime and disorder and protect the most vulnerable people from harm.'

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Provision of information held by Northumbria Police made under the Freedom
of Information Act 2000 (the 'Act')

Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) Request 334/22 - Theft of Building
Materials

Thank you for your email received 24 February 2022 in which you made a
request for access to certain information which may be held by Northumbria
Police.

As you may be aware the purpose of the Act is to allow a general right of
access to information held at the time of a request, by a Public Authority
(including the Police), subject to certain limitations and exemptions.

You asked:

I’d like to make a request regarding information on reports of theft of
building materials - specifically lead and copper.

1.    Specifically, I’d like to request the number of reports of theft
where lead and/or copper materials have been stolen from the time period
2017 to 2022 (or if 2022 data is not available then data from 2017 - 2021
would be great).

2.    Please could you also show the town/city where the theft has taken
place, and the type of building or site that the material was stolen from
(eg. a church, residential property, construction site).

3.    Finally, in each reported case please advise whether any arrests
were made and if so, whether there were any prosecutions.

We have now had the opportunity to fully consider your request and I
provide a response for your attention.

Following receipt of your request, searches were conducted with the
Corporate Development Department of Northumbria Police.  I can confirm
that the information you have requested is held by Northumbria Police.

I am able to disclose the located information to you with the below noted.

·         Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are
accurate and complete.  However, it is important to note that these data
have 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 those 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 those data are used.

·         Crimes have been identified as:

- matching the "theft and handling" description

- having an item listed under MET or BUI (metal or building respectively)
that contained the term COPPER or LEAD

·         A separate data base was then reviewed to extract arrest data.

·         The information is provided by Sector as this is how it is
recorded and collated.

With all the above noted we respond as attached.

If you decide to write an article / use the enclosed data we would ask you
to take into consideration the factors highlighted in this document so as
to not mislead members of the public or official bodies, or misrepresent
the relevance of the whole or any part of this disclosed material.

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.

The information we have supplied to you is likely to contain intellectual
property rights of Northumbria Police.  Your use of the information must
be strictly in accordance with the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988
(as amended) or such other applicable legislation.  In particular, you
must not re-use this information for any commercial purpose.

You may be interested to know that Northumbria Police routinely publish
information via the Disclosure Log.  The aim of the Disclosure Log is to
promote openness and transparency by voluntarily placing information into
the public arena.

The Disclosure Log contains copies of some of the information that has
been disclosed by Northumbria 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.

[1]https://beta.northumbria.police.uk/about...

How to complain

If you are unhappy with our decision or do not consider that we have
handled your request properly and we are unable to resolve this issue
informally, you are entitled to make a formal complaint to us under our
complaints procedure, attached.

If you are still unhappy after we have investigated your complaint and
reported to you the outcome, you may complain directly to the Information
Commissioner’s Office and request that they investigate to ascertain
whether we have dealt with your request in accordance with the Act.

Yours sincerely

Tim Pasola

Data Protection and Disclosure Advisor

[NOT PROTECTIVELY MARKED]

'Our vision is to deliver an outstanding police service; working with
communities to prevent crime and disorder and protect the most vulnerable
people from harm.'

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References

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