Post Items Intercepted and Seized/Drugs Intercepted in the Mail

Keywords

Items, Intercepted, Interceptions, Seized, Post, Mail, Envelope, Card, Parcel, Action, Decision, Illegal, Drugs

Publication number

PUB 1164

FOI reference number

15424

Request title

Number of Items Intercepted and Seized

Date range

2020

Information requested

The number of items intercepted and/or seized by the force in the post in the year 2020.

Disclosure with exemptions

Full Refusal, Sections 12 and 17

Information correct as at

24 March 2021

Date of disclosure

01 April 2021

Related documents

N/A

FOI 15424 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:

Essex Police are unable to accurately extract the level of detail in relation to your request for the requested period 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.  The action to intercept or decision to intercept is not recorded in an extractable format, that is to say the data cannot be produced by means of purely sorting or filtering data sources or running a database query tool.  This request would entail manually extracting incident data and then reviewing each record one by one to establish if it meets the criteria. 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.

Section 16(1) of the FOIA provides that a public authority is required to provide advice and assistance, Essex Police can confirm that thefts of parcels/postage can be provided using the Crime Type - Theft of Mail 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.

If you do require further information a new request will need to be submitted and the request will be dealt with accordingly.

FOI reference number

15426

Request title

Drugs Intercepted in the Mail

Date range

2019-2021

Information requested

Please send information on illegal drugs intercepted in the mail by Police since 1 January 2019.

Please state the number of interceptions, what month each interception was made, the type and quantity of drug intercepted and what format it was posted in (envelope, card, parcel etc.).

Disclosure with exemptions

Full Refusal, Sections 12 and 17

Information correct as at

24 March 2021

Date of disclosure

01 April 2021

Related documents

N/A

FOI 15426 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:

Essex Police are unable to accurately extract the level of detail in relation to your request for the requested period 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.  The action to intercept or decision to intercept is not recorded in an extractable format, that is to say the data cannot be produced by means of purely sorting or filtering data sources or running a database query tool.  This request would entail manually extracting incident data and then reviewing each record one by one to establish if it meets the criteria. 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.

Section 16(1) of the FOIA provides that a public authority is required to provide advice and assistance, Essex Police can confirm that thefts of parcels/postage can be provided using the Crime Type - Theft of Mail or general Drug Offences 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.

If you do require further information a new request will need to be submitted and the request will be dealt with accordingly.