Frivolous Freedom Of Information (FOI) requests to Dyfed-Powys Police such as wanting to know the star signs of criminals are costing a fortune and wasting police time, says Simon Hart MP.

An investigation by his office has revealed that police spent 240 hours dealing with requests at a cost of nearly £6,000 in the first seven months of 2011.

Pointless requests have included wanting to know the star signs of car thieves and the owners of the cars they steal, how many investigations have involved werewolves and Big Foot and one that even asked what this week's lottery numbers were going to be. The Force has also had four requests involving UFOs in the past two years.

"The Freedom of Information Act is a useful tool which I have used myself and which has undoubtedly improved the transparency and accountability of many public institutions," said Mr Hart.

"However I am concerned that it is also being abused by people making vexatious, petty and sometimes downright bonkers requests that are costing the police a lot of money and wasting their time."

Dyfed-Powys Police is legally required to spend up to 18 hours finding the information needed to answer each request and if it looks likely that they may exceed that time limit then they have to negotiate with the applicant to try to reduce the time.

"What is worth bearing in mind is that it is not 240 hours being spent by the Dyfed Powys FOI officer answering requests, but 240 hours needed by officers in other divisions and departments to find the information that the FOI officer requires," said Mr Hart.

The Force is allowed to refuse to answer an FOI request if it is ruled to be vexatious or repeated and so far 10 requests have been refused on these grounds this year.

"The FOI Act has undoubtedly improved the way public bodies work and account for themselves," added Mr Hart. "But it is a worry to me that it could be turning into a bureaucratic monster that is a burden on police time and resources. Perhaps it is time to be looking at introducing more stringent rules on the number, length and nature of requests allowed."