Arrests for non-violent drug offences (FOI)

Request

A

How many arrests have been made for first time, non-violent related drug offences in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2018

B

How many convictions have been made for first time, non-violent related drug offences in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2018

C

What sentences were received by those convicted?

Response

A to C

To establish whether an individual was a first time offender or if the offence was non-violent, a thorough review of each individual case would be required. This could take in excess of 10-20 minutes for each case. With over 2000 drug offences recorded in the time period requested, to extract the information requested, arrests, convictions and sentencing, would take longer than the time permitted to complete Freedom of Information requests.

To obtain information about an individual’s previous criminal history (to check if the individual was a first time offender) would require use of the Police National Computer (PNC) for a non law enforcement purpose. This is contrary to the PNC user guidelines for Police.

Article applied

Article 16 A scheduled public authority may refuse to supply information if cost excessive

(1) A scheduled public authority that has been requested to supply information may refuse to supply the information if it estimates that the cost of doing so would exceed an amount determined in the manner prescribed by Regulations.

Regulation 2 (1) of the Freedom of Information (Costs) (Jersey) Regulations 2014 allows an authority to refuse a request for information where the estimated cost of dealing with the request would exceed the specified amount of the cost limit of £500. This is the estimated cost of one person spending 12.5 working hours in determining whether the department holds the information, locating, retrieving and extracting the information.