FOI/1697 - Cannabis Farms
Provision of information held by Northumbria Police made under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the 'Act')
Thank you for your email received on the 21 October 2025 in which you made a request for access to certain information which may be held by Northumbria Police.
As you may be aware the purpose of the Act is to allow a general right of access to information held at the time of a request, by a Public Authority (including the Police), subject to certain limitations and exemptions.
We have now had the opportunity to fully consider your request and we provide a response for your attention. Please accept our sincere apologies for the delay in issuing this response to you.
Following receipt of your request, searches were conducted with the Force Coordination and Operations and Crime Departments of Northumbria Police. We can confirm that the information you have requested is held in part by Northumbria Police.
We are able to disclose the located information to you as follows with the below caveats to be noted:
• Data for the years 2021 and 2022 are pulled from crimes, not seizure data (due to data retention). "Farms" removed where the quantity of the farms is unknown, thus counts may be lower than actual figures.
• 2021 data is for the complete year from 1 January 2021.
You asked:
I am requesting the following information regarding cannabis farm operations within your jurisdiction from September 2021 to September 2025:
1. The total number of cannabis farms detected or investigated by your force each year.
2. The average estimated size of these cannabis farms (number of plants or premises size), if available.
No information held as average either in respect of numbers of plants and premises size is not recorded.
Thank you for your email received on the 21 October 2025 in which you made a request for access to certain information which may be held by Northumbria Police.
As you may be aware the purpose of the Act is to allow a general right of access to information held at the time of a request, by a Public Authority (including the Police), subject to certain limitations and exemptions.
We have now had the opportunity to fully consider your request and we provide a response for your attention. Please accept our sincere apologies for the delay in issuing this response to you.
Following receipt of your request, searches were conducted with the Force Coordination and Operations and Crime Departments of Northumbria Police. We can confirm that the information you have requested is held in part by Northumbria Police.
We are able to disclose the located information to you as follows with the below caveats to be noted:
• Data for the years 2021 and 2022 are pulled from crimes, not seizure data (due to data retention). "Farms" removed where the quantity of the farms is unknown, thus counts may be lower than actual figures.
• 2021 data is for the complete year from 1 January 2021.
You asked:
I am requesting the following information regarding cannabis farm operations within your jurisdiction from September 2021 to September 2025:
1. The total number of cannabis farms detected or investigated by your force each year.
| Year | Total Farms |
| 2021 | 189 |
| 2022 | 164 |
| 2023 | 156 |
| 2024 | 134 |
| 2025 | 74 |
2. The average estimated size of these cannabis farms (number of plants or premises size), if available.
No information held as average either in respect of numbers of plants and premises size is not recorded.