Missing Persons Cases 2013-2021
Keywords
Missing, Persons, People, Cases, Recorded, Currently, Open, Closed, Found, Children, Adults, Unspecified, Nationality, Field, Recording, System, COMPACT, Ethnicity, Vietnamese, Criteria, Referral, Case, Basis.
Publication Number
PUB 1355
FOI Reference Number
16300
Request Title
Missing Persons Cases
Date Range
2016-2021
Information Requested
I am writing to make a request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, regarding missing persons cases. Specifically, I would like to know:
1. The number of currently open missing persons cases, as of 21.10.2021
2. The number of cases identified in (1) broken down by whether they relate to children or adults
3. The number of cases identified in (1) broken down by the nationality of the missing person.
4. The number of currently open missing child cases broken down by nationality, as of 21.10.2021.
5. The total number of missing reports received by the force in the past 5 years relating to children, broken down by nationality. I include in this point closed cases.
Where the number of missing people of a given nationality is fewer than 5, I accept this may need to be given as a range (eg 0-5).
Disclosure with Exemptions
Part Disclosure with Section 12(1) and Section 17(1) Exemptions
Information Correct as at
31 December 2021
Date of Disclosure
31 December 2021
Related Documents/Links
N/A
FOI 16300 Response
Having completed enquiries within Essex Police in respect of Section 1(1)(a), Essex Police does hold information relating to your request, however, the obligation of Section 1(1)(b) cannot be met as Essex Police does not hold all the information requested in a format that allows it to be retrieved within the time and cost limits of FOI.
When responding to a request for information under the terms of the FOIA, a public authority is not obliged to provide information if the authority estimates that the cost of the retrieval of the information requested would be in excess of £450 (equivalent to 18 hours work). The costs criteria relates to a request in its entirety, which means that if we cannot retrieve all of the information requested within the costs limit, we are not obliged to retrieve any of the information requested.
Section 12(1) of the FOIA states that a public authority is not obliged to:
“…comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying with the request would exceed the appropriate limit.”
The following explanation outlines the difficulty Essex Police has in answering your request:
In relation to Questions 3, 4 and 5, Essex Police are unable to accurately extract the level of detail in relation to your request from our current systems. Essex Police systems are designed primarily for the management of individual cases and not primarily for the production of statistical information for FOI responses. This request would entail manually extracting the requested data and then reviewing each case one by one to establish the information if held. Whilst we have a Nationality Field on the COMPACT system, this is blank for all records. Ethnicity is much more widely used. 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.
Consequently, and to this extent, Essex Police are exempt from the duty to provide information you have requested under the provisions of Section 12(1) of the FOIA. Therefore, and in accordance with Section 17(1) of the FOIA, this communication must act as a refusal notice to provide all of the information that could be interpreted as being captured by this part of your request.
Having said that and in an effort to assist, although excess cost removes the force’s obligations under the FOIA, Essex Police can confirm the following:
Caveats:
The data is correct as at 31 December 2021.
The data below shows the counts of Missing Persons Reports.
Open Missing Persons Cases = Missing Person Not Found.
Date: Data up to and including 30 November 2021.
1. The number of currently open missing persons cases.
The number of open missing person cases as at 30 November 2021 was 115.
2. The number of cases identified in (1) broken down by whether they relate to children or adults.
Total: 115
Children < 18: 47
Adult > 18: 68
Every effort is made to ensure that the data provided by Essex Police is accurate and complete. However, Essex Police systems are designed primarily for the management of individual cases and not for the purposes of providing data to answer specific FOI enquiries. Please note although data can be extracted from a number of sources via database queries, the results may be subject to inaccuracies. Care should be taken to understand our return when considering the interpretation or further use of the data.
The Force Information Management Board chaired by the Deputy Chief Constable has oversight of the Force wide programme of work to improve the quality of Force data. This work has identified data quality leads in all key areas of the business including the Crime and Public Protection Command. Liaison between the Force Data Quality Team and the Crime and Public Protection Command lead for data quality will identify and resolve issues through a variety of mechanisms to ensure regular and appropriate supervisory oversight.
Section 16(1) of the FOIA provides that a public authority is required to provide advice and assistance, Essex Police can confirm that Ethnicity statistics can be provided if required.
The intention of Section 16 is to provide assistance in resubmitting a valid request. Please note that any advice and assistance under Section 16 regarding resubmission of a request does not indicate that resubmission will provide a full disclosure, each submission will be assessed and if a disclosure is deemed harmful, then the appropriate exemptions will apply.
FOI Reference Number
16516
Request Title
Missing Vietnamese Adults
Date Range
2013-2021
Information Requested
1. How many Vietnamese adults have been recorded as missing and not found in the past 8 years?
2. How many Vietnamese adults have been recorded as missing and subsequently found in the past 8 years?
3. How many of these missing Vietnamese adults have gone missing more than once?
4. How many missing people currently on your recording system have an unspecified nationality and/or ethnicity?
5. What criteria is used for referral to the Missing People website?
Disclosure with Exemptions
Part Disclosure with Section 12(1) and Section 17(1) Exemptions
Information Correct as at
23 December 2021
Date of Disclosure
04 January 2022
Related Documents/Links
N/A
FOI 16516 Response
Having completed enquiries within Essex Police in respect of Section 1(1)(a), Essex Police does hold information relating to your request, however, the obligation of Section 1(1)(b) cannot be met as Essex Police does not hold all the information requested in a format that allows it to be retrieved within the time and cost limits of FOI.
When responding to a request for information under the terms of the FOIA, a public authority is not obliged to provide information if the authority estimates that the cost of the retrieval of the information requested would be in excess of £450 (equivalent to 18 hours work). The costs criteria relates to a request in its entirety, which means that if we cannot retrieve all of the information requested within the costs limit, we are not obliged to retrieve any of the information requested.
Section 12(1) of the FOIA states that a public authority is not obliged to:
“…comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying with the request would exceed the appropriate limit.”
The following explanation outlines the difficulty Essex Police has in answering your request:
In relation to Questions 1, 2 and 3, Essex Police are unable to accurately extract the level of detail in relation to your request from our current systems. Essex Police systems are designed primarily for the management of individual cases and not primarily for the production of statistical information for FOI responses. This request would entail manually extracting the requested data and then reviewing each case one by one to establish the information if held. Whilst we have a Nationality Field on the COMPACT system, this is blank for all records. Ethnicity is much more widely used. 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.
Consequently, and to this extent, Essex Police are exempt from the duty to provide information you have requested under the provisions of Section 12(1) of the FOIA. Therefore, and in accordance with Section 17(1) of the FOIA, this communication must act as a refusal notice to provide all of the information that could be interpreted as being captured by this part of your request.
Having said that and in an effort to assist, although excess cost removes the force’s obligations under the FOIA, Essex Police can confirm the following:
Caveat: The data is correct as at 23 December 2021.
4. How many missing people currently on your recording system have an unspecified nationality and/or ethnicity?
Whilst we have a Nationality Field on the COMPACT system, this is blank for all records. Ethnicity is much more widely used.
|
2013 |
2014 |
2015 |
2016 |
2017 |
2018 |
2019 |
2020 |
2021 |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Unspecified nationality |
814 |
1103 |
3233 |
7699 |
8016 |
8710 |
8622 |
6560 |
6027 |
|
Unspecified ethnicity |
0 |
0 |
12 |
28 |
9 |
6 |
4 |
4 |
6 |
5. What criteria is used for referral to the Missing People website?
We do not have a criteria for referring to the Missing People Website, it is usually assessed on a case by case basis.
Every effort is made to ensure that the data provided by Essex Police is accurate and complete. However, Essex Police systems are designed primarily for the management of individual cases and not for the purposes of providing data to answer specific FOI enquiries. Please note although data can be extracted from a number of sources via database queries, the results may be subject to inaccuracies. Care should be taken to understand our return when considering the interpretation or further use of the data.
The Force Information Management Board chaired by the Deputy Chief Constable has oversight of the Force wide programme of work to improve the quality of Force data. This work has identified data quality leads in all key areas of the business including the Crime and Public Protection Command. Liaison between the Force Data Quality Team and the Crime and Public Protection Command lead for data quality will identify and resolve issues through a variety of mechanisms to ensure regular and appropriate supervisory oversight.
Section 16(1) of the FOIA provides that a public authority is required to provide advice and assistance, Essex Police can confirm that Ethnicity statistics can be provided if required.
The intention of Section 16 is to provide assistance in resubmitting a valid request. Please note that any advice and assistance under Section 16 regarding resubmission of a request does not indicate that resubmission will provide a full disclosure, each submission will be assessed and if a disclosure is deemed harmful, then the appropriate exemptions will apply.