Wildlife Crime and Birds of Prey

South Yorkshire Police did not have the information requested.

Dear South Yorkshire Police,

I would like to make a Freedom of Information request relating to
birds of prey and wildlife crimes. I have broken the request down
into several parts for ease of reply. I'm happy to accept your
information in whichever format is most convenient.

1. How many incidents of wildlife crimes or suspected crimes have
there been in your force area each year for years 2008-12.

2. How many have there been to date this year?

3. What forms have these recorded incidents taken, ie how many have
involved poisonings, shootings and egg disturbances?

4. What species have been involved in each incident?

5. How many cases have been referred to prosecution in each year?

Yours faithfully,

Dan Phillips

South Yorkshire Police

Dear Mr Phillips

Re your request (reference number above):

I would like to make a Freedom of Information request relating to
birds of prey and wildlife crimes. I have broken the request down
into several parts for ease of reply. I'm happy to accept your
information in whichever format is most convenient.

1. How many incidents of wildlife crimes or suspected crimes have
there been in your force area each year for years 2008-12.

2. How many have there been to date this year?

3. What forms have these recorded incidents taken, ie how many have
involved poisonings, shootings and egg disturbances?

4. What species have been involved in each incident?

5. How many cases have been referred to prosecution in each year?
Your request will now be considered and you will receive a response within
the statutory timescale of 20 working days as defined by the Act, subject
to the information not being exempt or containing a reference to a third
party. In some circumstances South Yorkshire Police may be unable to
achieve this deadline. If this is likely you will be informed and given a
revised time-scale at the earliest opportunity
 
There may be a fee payable for the retrieval, collation and provision of
the information you request. If this is the case you will be informed and
the 20 working day timescale will be suspended until we receive payment
from you. If you choose not to make a payment then your request will
remain unanswered.

Some requests may also require either full or partial transference to
another public authority in order to answer your query in the fullest
possible way. Again, you will be informed if this is the case.

Please Note – Responses are published on South Yorkshire Police disclosure
log, which can be found at the following link:
http://www.southyorkshire.police.uk/cont...

If you have any enquiries please contact the Information Compliance Unit.

Yours sincerely,

Information Compliance Clerk
Professional Standards Department
Unit 20 Sheffield 35A Business Park
Churchill Way
Sheffield
S35 2PY

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 Information Commissioner who will give it consideration.
Email - [email address]

Citizen Focus: Improving Satisfaction and Confidence is a Priority for the
Force

Could you or someone you know make a difference as a Special Constable in
South Yorkshire Police? If so call 0114 2197000 or visit
www.southyorks.police.uk to find out more

South Yorkshire Police

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Phillips

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

(See attached file: 20130536 Response.pdf)

Best regards

Neil Sheedy
Information Compliance Clerk
South Yorkshire Police
Information Compliance Unit
Professional Standards Department
Unit 20 Sheffield 35A Business Park
Churchill Way
Sheffield
S35 2PY

Email - [email address]

Citizen Focus: Improving Satisfaction and Confidence is a Priority for the
Force

Could you or someone you know make a difference as a Special Constable in South Yorkshire Police? If so call 0114 2197000 or visit www.southyorks.police.uk to find out more

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Dear Neil Sheedy/South Yorkshire Police,

Thank you for your swift reply and I appreciate that given you haven't got the information I asked for in specific fields searching through 664 incidents would be onerous in the extreme.

Could I in that case seek a clarification and also refine my request significantly?

Refinement: Would it be possible to answer the questions above, but only for the current year? Also I accidentally missed out the crucial term 'birds of prey' in my first question as I'm only specifically interested in that type of wildlife crime.

Clarification: You state that there has been 664 incidents since 2008 with 'wildlife' in the incident record but there have been no offences under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 in that time. Does that mean that none of these incidents resulted in an offence that your police pursued or that they were recorded under a different act? An answer in general terms would suffice.

Secondly you state four different types of offence that can be recorded under the Act but none of them would cover the type of crime I was looking at. Could I draw your attention to just one example in your neighbouring force of a gamekeeper prosecuted under the Act for poisoning:

http://www.rspb.org.uk/news/281971-gamek...

So can I just clarify that no such incident has been pursued in your force area?

Once again I thank you for your time

Yours faithfully,

Dan Phillips

South Yorkshire Police

Dear Mr Phillips

Re your request (reference number above):

Refinement: Would it be possible to answer the questions above, but only
for the current year? Also I accidentally missed out the crucial term
'birds of prey' in my first question as I'm only specifically interested
in that type of wildlife crime.

Thank you for your email dated the 4th of July 2013. Please find detailed
above the refined request that you highlighted in your correspondence. I
will also make the necessary enquiries in respects of the other points
made in your email.
Your request will now be considered and you will receive a response within
the statutory timescale of 20 working days as defined by the Act, subject
to the information not being exempt or containing a reference to a third
party. In some circumstances South Yorkshire Police may be unable to
achieve this deadline. If this is likely you will be informed and given a
revised time-scale at the earliest opportunity
 
There may be a fee payable for the retrieval, collation and provision of
the information you request. If this is the case you will be informed and
the 20 working day timescale will be suspended until we receive payment
from you. If you choose not to make a payment then your request will
remain unanswered.

Some requests may also require either full or partial transference to
another public authority in order to answer your query in the fullest
possible way. Again, you will be informed if this is the case.

Please Note – Responses are published on South Yorkshire Police disclosure
log, which can be found at the following link:
http://www.southyorkshire.police.uk/cont...

If you have any enquiries please contact the Information Compliance Unit.

Yours sincerely,

Neil Sheedy
Information Compliance Clerk
Professional Standards Department
Unit 20 Sheffield 35A Business Park
Churchill Way
Sheffield
S35 2PY

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 Information Commissioner who will give it consideration.
Email - [email address]

Citizen Focus: Improving Satisfaction and Confidence is a Priority for the
Force

Could you or someone you know make a difference as a Special Constable in
South Yorkshire Police? If so call 0114 2197000 or visit
www.southyorks.police.uk to find out more

show quoted sections

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Phillips

 

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

 

 

Best regards

 

Neil Sheedy

South Yorkshire Police

Information Compliance Unit

Professional Standards Department

Unit 20 Sheffield 35A Business Park

Churchill Way

Sheffield

S35 2PY

 

Email - [1][email address]

 

Citizen Focus: Improving Satisfaction and Confidence is a Priority for the
Force

 

Could you or someone you know make a difference as a Special Constable in
South Yorkshire Police? If so call 0114 2197000 or visit
www.southyorks.police.uk to find out more

References

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