Under 10 & Under 15's

1. 1a. How many crimes were committed in your area where the offender was aged under 10 in each of the past 5 years? Please provide a breakdown of these offences, showing the nature of the crime and the age of the offender if available. 
   1b. How many children under the age of 10 were found to be in possession of illegal drugs in each of the past 5 years?
   1d. The number of children aged a)15 and under and b) 9 and under who were suspected of committing a sexual offence in each of the past 5 years
   1e. The number of sexual offences committed against children a) 15 years old and under and b) 9 years old and under.
   1f. The number of children a) 15 years old and under and b) 9 years old and under found in possession of knives, blades or firearms in each of the past 5 years broken down by type of weapon.
2. How many murders which occurred in your force area in each of the past 10 years remain unsolved?
3. 3a. The amount of money paid by the force to informants in each of the past 5 years
   3b. The amount of money paid by the force in rewards for information in each of the past 5 years
   3c. The number of children aged 15 and under i) suspected of supplying drugs and ii) convicted in each of the past 5 years broken down if available by class of drug supplied and the age of the child.
4. Details of the items of property stolen from the police force in each of the past 5 years including the total worth of stolen property stolen in each year.
5. Please provide the total number of a) British nationals and b) foreign nationals by nationality who have been arrested/ had proceedings taken against them for notifiable offences in your force area in each of the past 5 years. Please break this down into offence categories, including: violence against a person, sexual offences, robbery, burglary, theft and handling, fraud or forgery, criminal damage, drug offences, other notifiable offences.
   

In accordance with section 1 (1) (b) of the Act our response is provided below;

Please note: As advised we have amalgamated both requests received 13/07/2009.

Question 1a, 1b, 1d, 1e, 1f, 2, and 4

Please see the attached Crime Statistics document.

Question 1c. i & ii

i) To obtain this information would require a manual trawl of PNC therefore it is estimated would exceed the appropriate limit. The appropriate limit is defined in the Data Protection and Freedom of Information (Fees and Appropriate Limit) Regulations 2004, which is covered by statutory Instrument Number 3244 of 2004. Furthermore, Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 allows a public authority to refuse to respond to a request for information where the cost of compliance would exceed the appropriate limit as defined by the above mentioned regulations.

ii) There is no information held

Question 3a

Cheshire Constabulary can disclose that £74,000 is recorded as being spent in 2007 by this force on the obtaining of information to combat crime and £66,000 in 2008. (these figures are per calendar year). Prior to 2007 this information was collated only in paper format, to obtain the information for 2006 and 2007 would require a manual trawl of every financial return for each BCU and to manually check all CHIS Minutes. This it is estimated would exceed the appropriate limit. The appropriate limit is defined in the Data Protection and Freedom of Information (Fees and Appropriate Limit) Regulations 2004, which is covered by statutory Instrument Number 3244 of 2004. Furthermore, Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 allows a public authority to refuse to respond to a request for information where the cost of compliance would exceed the appropriate limit as defined by the above mentioned regulations. The figures for 2008/09 are not yet available therefore there is no information held.

Question 3b

There is no effective centralised coordination for this kind of reward payments, to collate this information would require a manual trawl of every investigation to see if a reward has been offered at any one time. This it is estimated would exceed the appropriate limit. The appropriate limit is defined in the Data Protection and Freedom of Information (Fees and Appropriate Limit) Regulations 2004, which is covered by statutory Instrument Number 3244 of 2004. Furthermore, Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 allows a public authority to refuse to respond to a request for information where the cost of compliance would exceed the appropriate limit as defined by the above mentioned regulations. However in the duty to assist you may find it useful to see the following link: Crime Stoppers Manual Of Guidance

Question 5

As per your email 13/07 question 5 has been withdrawn.