FOI 108/26 Cuckooing
Date: 19/02/26
Enquiry Reference: FOI 108-26
I write in connection with regards to your Freedom of Information request. Below is your request and our response.
How many cases of cuckooing have your force dealt with
broken down by the following financial years 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025
- a) The analyst conducted a search for all Modern Slavery offences since 2015 and then filtered these offences for any which refer to 'cuckooing' which has given the below results. This does not capture all cuckooing cases, only the ones which are a crime under Modern Slavery offences. For anything else we would rely on the below exemption.
2022 - 9 offences
2023 - 3 offences
2024 - 1 offence
2025 - 2 offences
Section 1 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) places two duties on public authorities. Unless exemptions apply, the first duty at Section 1 (1) (a) is to confirm or deny whether the information specified in a request is held. The second duty at Sec 1(1) (b) is to disclose information that has been confirmed as being held. Where exemptions are relied upon s17 of FOIA requires that we provide the applicant with a notice which: a) states that fact b) specifies the exemption(s) in question and c) states (if that would not otherwise be apparent) why the exemption applies.
Having made enquiries within the Force to capture all offences related to “cuckooing” would require a search for all crime/occurrence types which mention 'cuckooing' within the remarks or MO comments and this would take in excess of the appropriate time stipulated by the Secretary for Constitutional Affairs, Lord Falconer on the 18th Of October 2004, that is, eighteen hours. This falls under the exemption of 'Compliance exceeding the appropriate limit' covered by Section 12 (1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and as such this work could not be undertaken. Therefore, please treat this as a refusal notice under S17 of the Freedom of information Act.
In accordance with Section 16 of the Act we have a duty to provide advice and assistance if you shorten the time scale we would endeavour to response. However, this should not be taken as a precedent that additional information would be supplied outside of the time/fees legislation for any subsequent requests but as a gesture of goodwill outside of the act we have provided the above figures.
The Cleveland Police response to your request is unique and it should be noted that Police Forces do not use generic systems or identical procedures to capture and record data therefore responses from Cleveland Police should not be used as a comparison with any other force response you receive.
If you are not satisfied with this response or any actions taken in dealing with your request, you have the right to request an independent internal review of your case under our review procedure. The Freedom of Information Code of Practice (see below link) states that a request for internal review should be made within 20 working days of the date on this response or 40 working days if extenuating circumstances to account for the delay can be evidenced. Public authorities are not obliged to accept internal reviews after this date.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/freedom-of-information-code-of-practice
Yours sincerely
Information Rights Decision Maker