1. The number of football fans arrested in fixtures between Bristol City and Bristol Rovers over the past eight years.
2. The number of arrests inside the stadium.
3. The result of the arrests e.g. court, imprisonment
4. The number of police on duty at the particular games over the past eight years
5. The number of police vehicles used, e.g. helicopters, police vans
6. The number of police injured when controlling the fixtures
7. The number of police dogs and horses that were used

I would appreciate this information for the years 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008

Section 17 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 requires Avon and Somerset Constabulary, when refusing to provide such information (because the information is exempt) to provide you the applicant 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.

1. The number of football fans arrested in fixtures between Bristol City and Bristol Rovers over the past eight years.

Calendar Year Number of fans arrested
2000 7
2001 6
2002 3
2003 0 (no matches between Bristol City and Bristol Rovers)
2004 0 (no matches between Bristol City and Bristol Rovers)
2005 17
2006 0
2007 10
2008 0 to date (no matches between Bristol City and Bristol Rovers)

2. The number of arrests inside the stadium.

Avon and Somerset Constabulary only hold a record of the total number of football related arrests made for the calendar years 2000 to 2002, this information is therefore not held in respect of this question for these calendar years. Additionally the details of the locations of the arrests i.e. inside/outside the stadium are only held in relation to the Bristol City football fans and not for the Bristol Rovers football fans. This is due to some match arrest statistical information being recorded by different football liaison units, and not recorded centrally, these units use differing recording methods for match arrest statistics. Please find a list of results below for the calendar years 2003 to 2008 for the Bristol City football fans:

Calendar Year Number of fans arrested inside stadium Number of fans arrested outside stadium
2005 0 1
2007 1 7

3. The result of the arrests e.g. court, imprisonment

Avon and Somerset Constabulary only hold a record of the total number of football related arrests made for the calendar years 2000 to 2002, and do not hold a record of the results of these arrests, this information is therefore not held in respect of this question for these calendar years.
Please find below a list of results for the calendar years 2003 to 2008 for both Bristol City and Bristol Rovers football fans:

Calendar Year Result of arrests
2005 17 released without charge
2007 5 x convictions, 3 x not guilty, 1 x discontinued, 1 x formal warning

6. The number of police injured when controlling the fixtures

Your request for this information has been considered and I am unable to provide you with a response. Avon and Somerset Constabulary injury at work statistical information does not record injuries on particular dates or injuries that have occurred whilst policing football games. In order to provide you with a response would involve the examination of thousands of injury at work forms held in individual personnel records. The cost of providing you with the information is above the amount to which we are legally required to respond i.e. the cost of locating and retrieving the information exceeds the “appropriate level” as stated in the Freedom of Information (Fees and Appropriate Limit) Regulations 2004. It is estimated that it would cost at least £450 to comply with your request.

4. The number of police on duty at the particular games over the past eight years
5. The number of police vehicles used, e.g. helicopters, police vans
7. The number of police dogs and horses that were used

I will provide a consolidated response to questions 4,5 & 7. Your request for information has been considered and I am not obliged to supply you with the information. The exemptions applicable to this information are section 31 - Law Enforcement and section 38 Health & Safety, both are qualified and prejudice based exemptions and as such a full harm and public interest test was supplied to the applicant.