Construction Sites

Could you please tell me the number of recorded thefts, security breaches and/ or incidents at construction sites in your police force area last 12 full months prior to the receipt of this email, specifically between December 2010-November 2011.  I would like a breakdown of incidents which have taken place and where they have happened (specific site addresses). Could you tell me what has been damaged or/ and stolen from the site.  I would like a detailed breakdown of the type of thefts, or incidents which have taken place (either proven or alleged) and any conviction that has taken place (if this is in your ability to expand).

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

From our preliminary assessment, we estimate that compliance with your request would exceed the appropriate costs limit under section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. This is currently £450. The basis for this calculation is the cost of providing data relating to convictions. In order to retrieve any such data it would require a manual examination of each reported crime file, of which there are just over 270, a further cross referencing with information held on the Police National Computer which is where conviction data is held. This is estimated to take approx 22 hours coupled with an estimated 8 hours to retrieve the basic crime data, this would exceed the appropriate limit and your request is refused.

Section 17 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 requires the Cheshire Constabulary, when refusing to provide such information (because the information is exempt) to provide you with a notice which a) states that fact, b) specifies the exemption in question and c) states (if that would not otherwise be apparent) why the exemption applies.

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.

In order to assist you we are able to produce data regarding the numbers, location etc of various crimes related to construction/building sites within the FOI cost limits. Please see the below xls sheet:  FOI 3528 Crimes on Building Sites