Tagged: bradford telegraph and argus
FOI FRIDAY: Mice at Manchester United, appealing students, cabbie grumbles and turning the lights off
Mice raid Manchester United < < < Manchester Evening News
I love this FOI. Simple, but effective – although the sports editor might not thank you
Manchester United had to deal with a mice infestation at Old Trafford, the M.E.N. can reveal. The outbreak was one of a number of hygiene and safety issues flagged up by council officials when they inspected the stadium restaurant, the Red Cafe and the staff canteen, last July. The Red Cafe was given the all-clear but the staff canteen in the West Stand was found to have a mouse infestation.
The council report was obtained by the M.E.N. under Freedom of Information laws. We asked for the results of the most recent hygiene inspections carried out at both Old Trafford and Manchester City’s ground, the Etihad Stadium
The wasted hours of ambulances at hospitals < < < Aldershot News and Mail
This data used to be released regularly – now FOI is required
MORE than 850 hours was lost through ambulance delays at Frimley Park Hospital in the first three months of the year.
Figures obtained by the News & Mail using the Freedom of Information Act show more than 863 hours were lost in turnaround times for ambulances serving the hospital’s A&E department between January and March.
The statistics only include the number of hours lost which went over the trust’s turnaround target of 30 minutes.
Continue reading
FOI Friday: Hospital parking, strange police phone calls, cheating students and criminals applying to work in schools
Toilet seats and compensation < < < Birmingham Mail
A WORKER sued Birmingham City Council and won £1,750 after a toilet seat collapsed causing him injuries, it has emerged.
The man was one of 274 successful claims in the last five years leaving taxpayers with a bill of almost £5 million.
Trips, exposure to deadly asbestos and problems with training were behind some of the most costly compensation payouts by the city council last year, the Birmingham Mail can reveal.
The cost of defending claims by a police force < Carlisle Times and Star
Cumbria Constabulary has paid out almost £50,000 in five years defending itself against employees who made claims of racism, sexism and unlawful deduction of wages.
The figures, released under the Freedom of Information Act, show 12 employees made claims against the force between 2008 and 2011.
Of these cases, Cumbria Constabulary lost three following an employment tribunal, won three and settled five without the need for an employment tribunal.
Bomb alerts in a city < < < Bradford Telegraph and Argus
Bomb experts carried out a controlled explosion after a smoke grenade was found in a Bradford alleyway in the 15th Army call-out to the city in three years.
Statistics from the Ministry of Defence released to the Telegraph & Argus under the Freedom of Information Act show the Catterick-based Army bomb disposal unit had been deployed to 14 other reports of suspicious packages, bomb hoaxes and improvised explosive devices in the district before the latest incident on Monday night.
Violent criminals apply to work in schools < < < Sunderland Echo
VIOLENT thugs, benefit fraudsters, drink drivers, drug users and a witness who lied under oath.
These are just some of the people who have applied to teach your children.
Today the Echo reveals the long list of convictions held by people applying to work with children in Sunderland’s schools.
The criminal offences were discovered when the past of applicants was scrutinised by the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB).
A Freedom of Information Act request found that 72 applications made in the city in the last two years were flagged up by the checking process, which unearthed 180 previous convictions.
A parking ticket issued every five minutes < < < Western Morning News
Motorists in Cornwall are being punished with parking tickets once every five minutes, the Western Morning News has discovered.
Parking officers handed out more than 36,000 tickets across the county in the past year, with drivers paying out more than £1.5 million in fi1nes.
Student plagerism on the rise < < < Nottingham Post
THE number of university students in Nottingham getting caught for cheating in coursework is on the rise.
In the past year 340 students in the city have been caught for plagiarism – almost 100 more than last year.
According to figures obtained by the Post, through a Freedom of Information request, the number of students found guilty of plagiarism at Nottingham Trent University has more than doubled, shooting up from 94 students in 2009/10 to 211 students 2010/11.
Crazy calls made to police < < < Sunday Sun
FROM vampire chases and alien attacks, to UFO and zombie sightings… these are just some of the spooky calls taken by North police forces.
Dozens of members of the public believe they have had a brush with the supernatural over the last five years.
The Sunday Sun can reveal the wacky calls received by forces in the region after a Freedom of Information Act request unearthed some ghostly goings-on.
Since 2007 more than 80 calls in relation to UFOs, aliens, zombies, vampires, ghosts and witches have been made to police by concerned members of the public.
Police officers who quit while conduct probed < < < Manchester Evening News
CAMPAIGNERS have demanded an end to hospital parking charges for seriously ill patients after a Sunday Sun investigation revealed £8m was raked in by health trusts last year.
A probe has revealed nine NHS trusts in the region raised a whopping £8,287,429 in parking fees – that’s up £106,000 on the previous year.
But many scrap all charges in some special cases, making parking free or discounted for cancer and renal patients and long-stay relatives.
Parking fines rebooted < < < The Birmingham Post
The ‘please name your top 20 streets for parking fines’ story is almost as old as the Freedom of Information Act itself but put in the context of tough economic times for businesses, it is perhaps more relevant than ever. To that end, the Birmingham Post got hold of Birmingham’s top 20 list – with one small street raking in almost £100,000.
FOI Friday: Classroom languages, councillor pensions and criminals applying to be teachers
1. What land has your council sold?
Interesting stuff from the BBC in London (although finding a link to their story was very hard, so I’ve linked to one from a local newspaper which credits the BBC at least). They used FOI to ask all London councils how many plots of land they have sold off in recent years, where those plots were and how big they were. That’s surely enough to generate some local stories elesewhere.
2. Hospitals cashing in from no-win, no-fee solicitors
Admittedly, the Association of British Insurers has a vested interest putting out the results of this FOI – but at a time when car insurance premiums are on the rise, should hospitals really be allowed to make tens of thousands of pounds from injury-claim lawyers wishing to advertise in Accident and Emergency departments?
3. Hospital cuts taking their toll?
The argument against NHS cuts is that it will reduce level of care, but how can this be quantified? Cambridge First has come up with a good way – asking for details of the number of cases of ‘surgical infection’ in patients who underwent major surgery. The paper also got hold of details of the number of emergency readmissions of patients following stays in hospitals. Hospital staff say that the fact both sets of numbers are rising shows they aren’t being able to do their jobs properly.
Interesting numbers from the Bexhill Observer which, thanks to FOI, reports on the number of mums giving birth who have what it calls ‘dangerous addictions’ – ranging from smoking to heroin.
5. The criminals applying to be teachers
This is probably the FOI I expect to see run and run now. The Stoke Sentinel asked the Criminal Records Bureau for a breakdown of the number of people with criminal records who applied to become teachers – a job which involves a CRB check. According to the paper, people convicted for drug dealing, fraud, theft, and arson all tried to get to work in schools.
6. The rise and rise of the ‘post charge’ caution
When someone is charged with a crime by the police, it’s fair to assume they’ll go to court, isn’t it? Apparently not, according to the Liverpool Post, which this week revealed the rising use of the ‘post charge caution’ by the Crown Prosecution Service. 45 have been handed out in Greater Manchester – but more than 200 in Merseyside.
7. Another different take on the parking fines hotspots story
There have been a number of new takes on the parking fines hotspots story recently, and here’s another one. – focusing on how much a council makes off its top two streets. That is what the Wandsworth Guardian did – and found two streets which combined make the council £500,000 a year
8. Bans from libraries and leisure centres
The Hull Daily Mail has revealed how 34 people have been banned from leisure centres and libraries in the city for a variety of offences including drug possession and death threats. As usual, unions say the documented cases of abuse are just the tip of the iceberg.
Interesting stuff from a chap called Trevor Nunn, who runs a website which keeps an eye on Chester and Cheshire West Council. He used FOI to find out how much was paid into councillors’ pensions by the council in the last year – £124,000. So what, you might say, but given that councillors receive allowances rather than salaries, and aren’t actually employed by councils, isn’t it a little odd that they get pensions?
10. 140 languages spoke in primary schools
The Bradford Telegraph and Argus used FOI to get detailed information on the languages spoken in primary schools. Across Bradford, 140 languages are spoken, with some schools having up to 98% of children with english as a second language. This article, to me, is proof you can deal with these issues without being accused of stirring up hatred.
Like this:
FOI Friday: Council workers earning less than a living wage, mental health wards and publicly-funded competitions
1. The impact of the closure of mental health wards -Burnley Express
This FOI from the Burnley Express really impressed me because it illustrates brilliantly how FOI can be used to paint a fuller picture than an organisation would otherwise seek to reveal. Lancashire Care NHS Trust, the mental health trust for Lancashire, plans to end all in-patient mental health care at Burnley General Hospital. Some patients will be moved to Preston – around a 60 to 70 mile round trip – and in 2014, dementia care will move to a site near Blackpool, almost a 100-mile round trip.
The trust argues it is about improving services for patients – but how many patients will be affected? That was the nub of the Express FOI, which is well explained in the article because it does what few FOI articles do – revealing what questions they asked before going into the answers.
Figures for the final six months of last year show the three wards in Burnley and the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit were very busy. The PICU ward was 91.2% full, two of the others were at full or over full, at 99% and 102%, and the third was 56% full.
According to the Trust, 472 teenagers have been admitted to the PICU ward in the last five years. 489 patients were admitted with dementia.
The new Blackpool development, a car boot sale site at Wyndyke Farm, off Preston New Road, is expected to open in 2014. Its 30 dementia and 16 PICU beds will serve the whole of Lancashire. The Trust says it is reducing dementia care in hospital because of developments in community services.
The numbers rather suggest that there won’t be enough beds, and those that there are will be up to 50 miles away. The numbers from the FOI request show, if nothing else, that there’s no numerical reason for closing the wards. Change for change sake?
2. Council’s dog poo crackdown is well, you know – Kidderminster Shuttle
Here’s a good example of FOI enabling residents to hold a council to account. The Kidderminster Shuttle probably covered the launch of the local council’s crackdown on dog poo – I imagine it warranted a press release. Shame, then, that a year on, and FOI reveals little action materialised.
3. Illegal gypsy sites – Burton Mail
When an illegal gypsy camp appears near someone’s house, the council is normal the first place that person calls for help. The Burton Mail used FOI to find out how many such camps had been reported in the last three years in their area – almost 100.
4. The impact of new parking rules – Birmingham Post
Parking tickets are often the subject of FOI requests – but here’s a different take on how to do it. The Birmingham Post used FOI to find out how many more tickets had been issued following the extension of parking rules to cover evenings and Sundays. The number of tickets issued has risen 74% – a nice little earner some might say.
5. Police cuts confirmed – Halifax Courier
The coalition government promised that frontline police officers would not be cut as police budgets were reduced. That doesn’t appear to be the case in Calderdale, where the Halifax Courier used FOI to reveal where the cuts were falling.
6. Council competitions – Wales on Sunday
I’ve seen loads of councils runs competitions with prizes and thought to myself ’that’s probably a waste of money’ but I’ve never thought of suggesting it as an FOI and aggregating the results though. Wales On Sunday have though – and it does ask some questions.
7. Council workers living under the breadline – Wigan Evening Post
Here’s a clever idea from the Wigan Evening Post - start asking local authorities how many members of staff earn less than the Living Wage – a figure calculated by the the Living Wage Unit to reflect the actual cost of living, rather than just the minimum wage. At Wigan Council, one in five earn less than £7.20.
8. Car crime by ward – Cambridge News
Among the many FOI stories you see about crime stats, it’s not often you come across one about car crime, but this article from the Cambridge News is worth a look – it breaks car crime down by ward. Is car crime important? Probably to those in the hotspot area, it is.
9. Missile-throwing yobs – Nottingham Post
I don’t normally include FOI stories which begin life on a press release, but this one was particularly well-timed from Autoglass, the windscreen repair people. It lists the number of missile attacks on cars by police force, timely given the spate of concrete throwing which has made the front pages.
10. How good are councils as employers? – Bradford Telegraph and Argus
There are 67 cases before or recently dealt with by employment tribunal involving Bradford Council staff. Two resulted in combined payouts of £100,000. A sign of a good employer or a bad one? The number being settled out of court suggests we’ll never know.
FOI Friday: Driving test interpreters, hospital inspection reports, school bus cuts … and getting more from police numbers
We’ve seen a few FOI success stories out of the Driving Standards Agency, which runs driving test centres. The latest one, though, from the Brighton Argus, could demonstrate that the agency is the gift which keeps on giving. The Argus reports on the number of people taking their test who required an interpreter to get through their driving tests.
2. Millions spent on patient taxis
More than £4million has been spent hiring taxis to ferry patients around in the last four years, according to an FOI request reported in the Weston Mercury from Great Western Ambulance Service (GWAS).
3. Getting access to hospital inspection reports
The Care Quality Commission is a public body, tasked with inspecting, among other things, hospitals. So on one hand, it’s a poor do to hear that the Hull Daily Mail had to use FOI to get hold of a report carried out about a maternity ward – but, on the other hand, it’s proof FOI works – with findings revealed which perhaps explain why the hospital wasn’t more open with it in the first place.
FOI Friday: Council employee compo, eating disorders, gypsy education and spying
1. Employer liability claims against councils
Lancahsire County Council paid out £1,250 to a member of staff who got a bad back from carrying a heavy refreshments tray while on duty. That was one of 179 claims made against LCC, reported by the Lancashire Evening Post, over the past four years – payouts have totalled more than £2million. Perhaps the most surprising one was this one:
£5,500 to a worker who fell out of bed responding to a phone call
A handy reminder of the value of returning to FOIs which may have been done elsewhere in the past. The Sunday Sun asked councils to reveal details of when they had used Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) powers to investigate members of the public.
The act means authorities can follow residents suspected of crime, trawl their internet browsing history and recruit informants and private investigators to monitor their movements. Some councils in the North even use it to snoop on their own staff.
3. Children with eating disorders
Bedfordshire on Sunday carried a worrying report on how eating disorders among young children was on the rise. It obtained the information by asking the South Essex Partnership Trust – the mental health trust for the area – for details of the numbers of cases, the sex of each case, and the age. The youngest were six and seven.
FOI Friday: Speaking clocks, hospital parking fines, gagging orders and snooping on council staff
1. Court cases dropped for ‘not being in the public interest’
Some fascinating numbers reported in the London Evening Standard as a result of an FOI request to the Crown Prosecution Service, which was asked to reveal how many prosecutions in London were dropped ‘because they were no longer in the public interest’ – often on cost grounds. More than 20,000 cases were dropped in London, a rise on previous years, with critics saying costs are increasingly a factor. One which could run and run elsewhere?
2. Another case of the cost of the obese
FOI requests asking hospitals about what they’ve spent on equipment to deal with obese people are nothing new – but asking the ambulance service could bring in some interesting results, as this story on the Daily Post in North Wales proves.
Here’s a new take on the parking tickets FOI. We’ve all done FOIs about the how much hospitals make from parking charges, but how many parking tickets do they issue? In Aberdeen, it’s around 2000 fines a year. A nice sideline if ever there was one?
FOI Friday: Maternity complaints, metal thefts, paying to access phone records and money from recycling,
Complaints about maternity wards (Sunday Sun)
A BABY was cut across the face as it was delivered by a routine Caesarean section procedure at a North hospital, the Sunday Sun reported after using FOI to get hold of details of complaints made about maternity units in the region.
It was one of almost 200 formal complaints to NHS trusts about maternity units, services and care experienced by soon-to-be parents and new mums.
There are tens of thousands of births in the North each year, and so the number of complaints is low. But unions last night called on the Government to ensure there was enough cover on maternity wards.
The cost of checking mobile phone records (Stoke Sentinel)
With phone hacking rarely out of the news at the moment, here’s a different relationship involving mobile phones which may cause surprise: The amount police forces have to pay mobile phone companies for access to records when carrying out investigations.
Figures released under a Freedom of Information request show that the amounts paid to telephone companies so Staffordshire Police can get their hands on text messages and call records have spiralled since 2007.
The information shows the force spent £238,803 in the financial year 2007/8. The following year the bill went up by £50,000 to £288,928.
Then in 2009/10, the force paid out £330,869.
FOI FRIDAY: Bail hearing notes, mystery foreign trips, smoking bans and relocation costs
Oooh.. a secret
1. Using FOI to get transcripts of bail hearings (Lancashire Telegraph)
Here’s a case for all reporters to keep in mind when dealing with stories which involve a question mark over whether the right decision was made at a bail hearing.
The murder of Lancashire nurse Jane Clough by her ex-boyfriend Jonathan Vass has been widely reported. He was on bail at the time for other offences, despite advice from the CPS and police to a judge not to allow such a situation.
The case has gone to Parliament this week with an MP calling for prosecutors to be given the right to appeal a bail hearing decision. The Lancashire Telegraph has covered the story carefully, and crime reporter Sam Chadderton used FOI to get hold of the transcripts of the bail hearings which led to Vass being released on bail:
Now, for the first time, the Lancashire Telegraph has gained access to a full written account of the two bail hearings, under the Freedom of Information Act.
Despite a formal application to the courts service being refused, the judge personally agreed to release the transcripts.
2. Police breaking data protection rules (Liverpool ECHO)
The Liverpool ECHO used FOI to find out how many times police officers at Merseyside Police had been caught breaking data protection laws. The answer: 208 times in three years:
Breaches include officers accessing police computer systems to access classified data about family and friends, spying on ongoing cases and researching for “non-policing” purposes.
Merseyside Police blamed a year-on-year rise down to the fact 130 officers looked at the file involving an allegation against Steven Gerrard.
2. Complaints about the smoking ban (Reading Post)
In the week MPs began looking at revoking part of the smoking ban, the Reading Post revealed the findings of its FOI probe into how well used anti-smoking legislation was in Reading. The answer: Not very. Reading Council has never tried to enforce the ban, with just 60 complaints made about alleged breaches. So what was all the fuss about?
3. The five-year-old accused of criminal damage (Bradford Telegraph and Argus)
Ok, so the FOI about the number of under tens who have been accused of committing offences has been done many times before – so why mention it now? Simple – the response from West Yorkshire Police was very detailed, and gave the age of the youngest person accused by a crime, thus making it possible for the T&A to report on the five year old accused of criminal damage.
4. Relocation costs (Stoke Sentinel)
A whole bunch of councils have merged in the last few years – but at what cost? The Stoke Sentinel pushed for answers on this when it submitted FOI requests to the new Cheshire East Council to find out how much had been paid in relocation cost to staff when it had been formed. The answer: £850,000 for people who had to move offices.
5. Suspended police officers (Sunday Sun)
The number of police officers suspended from police forces in the north doubled last year, according to the Sunday Sun – with some spending more than a year on gardening leave.
6. Redundancy costs for health chiefs (Teesside Gazette)
The costs of making staff redundant from authorities has been in the headlines for a while and in Teesside, the Evening Gazette has been steadily revealing the costs at various bodies in its areas. Primary Care Trusts are among those making big redundancies ahead of being scrapped, and the Gazette has made a point of asking for details of the biggest single payout – including 3223k at one health trust.
7. A numbers game (Brighton Argus)
Covering benefits stories can be tricky as it normally involves being accused of picking on the vulnerable. But this story from the Brighton Argus is worth digging into. It reports on figures, obtained under FOI, which show that an average of 10% of people trying to claim for Employment Support Allowance get it – but in Sussex 15% of all applicants are approved for it. In other words, you’re 50% more likely to get it in Sussex than anywhere else.
8. Council tax reminders for councillors (Maidenhead Advertiser)
The Maidenhead Advertiser is the latest newspaper to do the FOI about the councillors who have been sent reminders for not paying their council tax. Maidenhead Council refused to name the councillors, as have others, but did say five councillors were sent reminders. I quite like the defence of one councillor who said they were so busy it could easily slip a councillor’s mind!
9. An unusual take on foreign trips by a council (Lancashire Evening Post)
I thought I’d include this story not because it’s an FOI we’ve not heard of before – but because it’s proof that FOI is only ever part of a story. The Lancashire Evening Post reported on the number of foreign trips made by councillors at the expense of taxpayers. What made the story was the response from the council about one trip to Bologna: The council couldn’t remember why councillors went or what was achieved.
10. Second home council tax (Ivybridge and South Brent Gazette)
And finally one which could run and run, especially in these cash-tight times. The Gazette used FOI to ask how many houses were subject to second-home council tax relief – therefore reducing council tax by 10 per cent. For South Hams, around £700,000 is lost in this relief, and the figures were broken down by area.
FOI FRIDAY: Maternity problems, schools failing fire checks, polluted rivers and cats stuck up trees
The dash to hospital - but will it be open?
1. Closed maternity units
It must be every new parent’s worst nightmare. Route to hospital carefully planned when contractions start, overnight bag packed, journey completed – only to be told the maternity unit is full. More worrying still is how common this scenario is, something the Western Mail revealed when it asked hospitals for the number of times it had had to announce maternity units were full. (Source: Western Mail)
Stories about schoolchildren misbehaving on the school bus are quite common, but how big is the problem overall? The Carlisle News and Star used Cumbria County Council to get statistics through FOI which show 14 children have been banned from buses for bad behaviour. (Source: Carlisle News and Star)
When the fire service carries out inspections of public buildings and workplaces, it can issue enforcement notices to get improvements done. The Lancashire Telegraph asked how many schools had been issued with enforcement notices and for what reasons. Answer: 7. Quite worrying if your school is involved. (Source: Lancashire Telegraph)
