Reports of foraging or picking plants
15th May 2025
Our Ref: FOI2025/03320
Request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 Ref No: FOI2025/03320
I write in connection with your request for information received on 15th April. I note you seek access to the following information:
I would like to submit a request for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) regarding foraging or picking of plants. Please provide the relevant information for the period between 1 April 2022 and the most recent date for which data is available.
Please could you provide the following:
1. The number of reports made to your force about foraging or picking of plants. Please could you provide the following breakdown:
a. A yearly breakdown of the number of reports made about foraging or picking of plants.
b. The approximate location (for example: name of the park or road) at which the foraging or picking of plants allegedly took place.
c. Whether the report of foraging or picking of plants led to a charge.
d. The names of the offences under which these charges were made.
e. The number of these charges which proceeded to conviction.
If you need to carry out a key terms search to locate these records, please include the terms “foraged”, “foraging”, “wild food”, “forager”, “wild ingredients”. If you would document these cases in another way, please include these results as per the spirit of my request.
I am required by the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (The Act) to handle all requests in a manner that is blind to the identity of the requestor. Any information released in response to a request is regarded as being published and therefore, in the public domain without caveat.
Response - Following enquiries within the Constabulary please see our response below.
1a. x3 reports; two within 2023/24 and one within 2024/25
1b. x1 report from East Cambs and x2 reports from South Cambs
1c. None; all finalised as ‘filed - no further lines of enquiry’
1d. N/A
1e. N/A
The numerical data presented in this response is an un-audited snapshot of un-published data sourced from "live" systems and is subject to the interpretation of the original request by the individual extracting the data.