Child Porn Pictures Seized

1. The number of child porn pictures seized by your force in each of the last three financial years.
2. The number of people arrested in relation to these seizures in each of the last three years.
3. The number of those who were then charged in the last three years.

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

We can confirm that we hold the data requested however we are unable to retrieve this data within the time/cost limitations of FOI. The information you have requested is held only on individual files relating to the subjects of investigation.

This will require a manual search to look at each image to identify if it is indecent and then count every indecent image that has been ‘seized’. 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 only central record is of the 'hash' values of images seized but this does not provide an answer to the number of individual pictures seized. We are unable to help therefore on this occasion.