Tagged: Bristol Evening Post
FOI Friday: Custard spills, charity finances, twocking – and an important breakthrough
Regional Development Agency assets
An important precedent has hopefully been set this week by the Birmingham Post when it comes to FOI. Regional Development Agencies were a relatively late addition to FOI coverage, and since their demise was announced, some have been reluctant to reveal how much they are selling their assets for.
The Birmingham Post this week revealed that Birmingham’s Stock Exchange, set up by Advantage West Midlands in 2007, has been sold for £1. In three years, it has swallowed £3million of public cash.
AWM at first refused to say how much it had been sold for, arguing it was commercially sensitive. The Post has managed to argue otherwie, and AWM changed its mind.
The front page of the Birmingham Post
According to the Warrington Guardian, a third of charities in the town are in the red after grants have been cut and recession hit donations. Reporter Hannah Bargery used FOI to ask the Charities Commission for details about charities in the Warrington borough. The figures she got back revealed that of the 389 registered charities in Warrington, 123 spent more than they received last year.
You may well have seen this story in the nationals this week but it began life as Monday’s splash in the Liverpool ECHO. FOI was used to ask councils for details of cases where pupils had brought compensation claims against schools. One pupil received £750 for being splashed with custard (presumably at lunchtime) while another got £6k for falling off a chair.
Continue reading
FOI Friday: Cops under probe, postie problems and restaurant reports
The Lancashire Telegraph lifted the lid on 50 cases of serious misconduct brought again Lancashire Police officers which were, in the main, kept under wraps.
Cases include allegations of assault, theft, drink driving, possession of child porn, fraud, making threats to kill and rape. Of course, 50 cases among such a large force is a small percentage – but it raises the issue of whether such hearings should be in public.
The thorny issue of councillor expenses has provided an interesting example of an FOI story based on what isn’t held for the Express and Echo in Exeter. Reporters at the paper used FOI to ask for the receipts submitted with councillor expenses claims. The council then revealed it didn’t keep the receipts. The paper puts this into context by saying the HM Revenues and Customs urges companies to return receipts for six years.
3. Getting off from a parking fine
500 motorists in Bristol escaped parking fines because traffic wardens filled the form in incorrectly. Details of the errors were revealed to the Bristol Evening Post via FOI. But put into context, 6,000 tickets a month are issued – so the chances of finding a loophole seems slim.
FOI Friday: Swine flu deaths, speeding points, paper cuts in hospital and fuel prices
The board of the North West Strategic Health Authority, according to its website. The authority's record on FOI and freedom of information is quite sickly
So, how many people did die of swine flu?
For reasons known only to itself – although the fact it keeps being named and shamed by the Information Commissioner for its poor record on FOI might be a clue – the North West Strategic Health Authority banned hospital trusts from giving out figures on swine flu deaths in January.
So the Manchester Evening News turned to FOI to get the true figures. Now it can reveal the number who died in Manchester, and it’s twice as high as originally reported. The SHA’s attitude is little short of shameful, and its original excuse for imposing the ban – because there was no guarantee the figures were accurate – is simply laughable.
Domestic violence at a hyperlocal level
A good example of how low police can go when asked to provide statistics. The Hinckley Times reports not only how many incidents of domestic violence there were in its area, but also how many there were in each police patrol area too.
The Times also married up these police patrol areas to the local council wards they covered, thus making it easier for readers to understand the numbers against areas they were more likely to know.
The Yorkshire Post reports on an FOI request which revealed that Asda in Harrogate was the place where more crimes were reported than anywhere else in North Yorkshire. Asda disputes the figures, arguing that the numbers include incidents around the store, not just in it. The fact that a sexual assault took place on its car park a week later doesn’t help that argument.
FOI Friday: Posh cars, charity cuts, ambulance waits and smoking fines
Good stuff from the Lancashire Telegraph as it set out to find where the cuts are falling at local councils, and who is suffering. For this FOI, it zoomed in on the amount being given out in grants to community groups and charities. No surprise, they’ve been cut. But the level of the cuts – some £3million – show charities are really suffering.
I sometimes wince a bit at stories which reveal how much is spent on luxury cars for public sector bosses. For example, if a police chief constable has a nice car, should we be offended? Probably not. But the Sunday Sun’s revelation that £500,000 a year is spent on cars for senior managers in the NHS in the north east could be seen as a good representation of spending which should be reviewed:
Audi TTs, Mercedes, Jaguar X types, trendy Nissan Qashqais and top of the range BMWs are among the 165 cars being leased to health leaders across the North’s health trusts
We used the Freedom of Information Act to ask eight health trusts how much they’ve spent on leasing cars to trust board members, senior managers and top nursing staff earning more than £54,000 – and a whopping £641,187 has been spent between them.
3. Serious untoward incidents on the rise
I’ve written a lot about ‘serious untoward incidents’ at hospitals, which many journalists have been using FOI to find out about. But this story from the Shropshire Star is worth mention because it not only reveals the sorts of incidents, but also breaks them down by year. The worry here is that the number of cases are going up – a sign of a stretched NHS?
FOI Friday: Nightstalker, OAP abuse, crime in villages and shredded letters
The conviction of Delroy Grant, the Nightstalker sex attacker who police failed to catch despite being given a golden opportunity to do so, has been headline news this week. The News Shopper in London took the opportunity to republish an invesitgation it conducted into the hunt for the Nightstalker prior to Grant’s arrest.
Reporter Linda Grant used FOI to ask how many suspects had been arrested or interviewed (none at the time), and had cost £102,000 to process 2,054 DNA samples. The Met, however, refused to tell the paper how many additional crimes they were attributing to the Night Stalker at the time. A good example of FOI to shed light on an active case.
We see a lot of FOIs relating to abuse of children, but the Evening Gazette in Teesside reports on cases of abuse to elderly people by council-employed carers. Abuse reports included financial abuse, verbal abuse and a case of medication error.
The village where no crimes are solved
The village of Hagley, near Bromsgrove, was scene of 30 vehicle crimes and 29 burglaries last year. None were solved. The figures were obtained using FOI and published by the Bromsgrove Advertiser – a clever use of FOI to get two sets of data which paint a very interesting picture.
Crimes committed in police stations
Police stations are proving to be fascinating places for FOI requests. Following on from break ins at police stations and thefts from police stations comes this one from the Bristol Evening Police: The 226 crimes committed inside police stations – over half of which were for criminal damage. A few arsons too. You can see a similar request from GetReading here.
The other things seized at court
Remember the FOI about the number of knives seized at court? The Gloucester Citizen follows a similar line, but chose to ask for a list of everything seized at court from visitors. As well as knives and blades, screwdrivers, CS sprays and darts were also seized, along with cameras and recorders
If ever there was one job which was likely to provoke abuse, it’s the role of traffic warden. And so it seems in Swansea, where the South Wales Evening Post reports on 73 reported attacks on traffic wardens, the worst of which involved knocking down a traffic warden and driving off.
Kidnapping is a crime which is quite rare, and therefore tends to make the headlines when it happens. In Cambridgeshire, the Evening News used FOI to find out how often kidnaps were reported, and what the motives were, and how long people were held for. The resulting article is a fascinating insight into some unusual crimes.
THE number of cyclists in Wales fined for riding on the pavements has more than quadrupled since 2008. A total of 318 people were given £30 fixed penalty notices in 2010, compared to just 54 in 2008, according to figures released under the Freedom of Information Act.
Royal Mail’s love of the shredder
The Royal Mail initially refused to reveal how many letters it destroys a year, on the grounds it would cause negative publicity, but later relented and revealed it shreds 25 million letters year.
And here’s one to keep an eye on. Tory MP Robert Halfon has FOI’d 100 top universities to see how many of them have received donations from ‘Middle East sources’. First to be revealed this way is Durham University, which took £11,000 from Iran, and a total of £700,000 from the region.
FOI Friday: CCTV in high schools, parking charges, bad tickets and swine flu
1. CCTV cameras in secondary schools
Submitting FOI requests to schools can be endurance test compared to approaching a local education authority for summary information they hold – but it can be worth it, as this story from the Coventry Telegraph proves. It used FOI to ask secondary schools how many CCTV cameras they had and where they were placed. One school revealed it had 112 cameras, roughly one for every 10 pupils. (Source: Coventry Telegraph)
2. Luxury cars at a time of cuts
Durham Police says it needs to save £6million and has just made 86 people redundant as part of government cuts. It also plans to have 110 fewer police officers. But the Northern Echo has reported on an FOI which revealed that £100k was spent on four luxury cars for senior officers. (Source: Northern Echo)
3. Paying extra parking charges
PARKING ticket machines kept almost £100,000 for Mole Valley Council last year by not giving change, the Advertiser newspaper reported. It used FOI to ask the council to reveal the total value of parking charges in council car parks, and how much was actually paid. There was a £100k difference, attributed by shopkeepers to the fact a lot of parking costs £1.80 for two hours, rather than £2 – and the machines don’t give change. (Source: Thisissurreytoday).
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)
20 FOI ideas to kick off 2011
There has been a spike in traffic coming to my blog this week using the search term ‘FOI ideas.’ Quiet first week back at the office maybe? So, here are 20 FOI ideas to kick off 2011, in no particular order. Happy new year!
1. Call outs to pubs and clubs
Which pubs and clubs have received the most calls from police? The Wilsmlow Express was able to name the venues in its area via FOI. A bit of a health warning should come with this FOI. A friend of mine runs a bar in a Lancashire town. His local paper ran a similar FOI and his bar came near to the top for call outs, but he says the figures included incidents where the venue was used as a landmark – eg an assault outside the bar. In some respects, this shouldn’t change the FOI because it’s the perception of danger which will matter to the reader. (Source: Wilmslow Express)
Councils up and down the country spend money on employing tax payer-funded political assistants for the main political parties. Good value for money? The Swindon Advertiser found it cost £80,000 a year in Swindon. (Source: Swindon Advertiser)
3. Taken to court for unpaid council tax
A good indicator of how the recession is impacting on people is getting hold of the number of people councils are taking to court for non payment of council tax. In Scotland, the figure is 350 A DAY. (Source: The Scotsman)
FOI Friday: Speed cameras, fines in a free car park, under-aged sex and naughty BBC employees
1. Fun with speed camerasAuthorities such as councils and police forces have been very reluctant to divulge information about speed cameras in recent times. For example, West Midands Police refused to reveal which cameras made the most cash for fear of vigilante attacks on the cameras involved. But Wales on Sunday managed to get some useful information out of police forces in Wales, asking how many cameras were active (ie switched on) on a chosen date.
2. Cost of closing a development agency
For all the coalition government talk about development agencies not providing value for money, there’s been little discussion of the cost of winding them up. One way to look at the cost of closing something down is to ask for the redundancy costs. The Lancashire Telegraph reports on an FOI request which revealed the redundancy bill at the North West Development Agency currently stands at £1.8million. Every little helps, and all that….
3. Fined for parking in a free car park
The Wokingham Times, like many newspapers, FOI’d the local council to find out how many parking tickets had been issued by the council and where. But it went beyond the top-line ‘total number’ of tickets in the story which followed, pointing out some interesting facts such as the number of tickets issued in car parks which were designated as free. Local knowledge + good FOI = better story?
At a time when councils are (rightly) pleading poverty, it’s worth asking how much they have in the bank as a result of Section 106 planning conditions – money developers have to pay the council to carry our improvements in an area as a result of a new development. For example, many councils will ask for money towards a new play park. The Bristol Evening Post did that and found there was £5million sat in the bank – it also reported where the money was meant to be spent.
FOI Friday: Legal aid for a murderer, teachers unchecked, wheelie bins and … top pothole streets
Legal aid for a man convicted of murder
The Belfast Newsletter reports on the outrage caused by revelations that £800,000 was spent on legal aid for a man convicted of murder – a figure which is expected to rise now the man concerned is expected to appeal.
In the classroom without a CRB check
The East Anglian Daily Times used FOI to ask Suffolk County Council how many teachers began teaching without having had the full criminal record checks. 61 teachers this term in 47 schools were involved, a decline on 211 last year.
Streets with the worst pothole problems
The Shields Gazette used FOI to find out how much the local council had spent fixing potholes, but also asked for the streets with the worst pothole problems, presumably determined by number of potholes which needed to be filled in.
Councils in many areas insist on residents have wheelie bins, but appear to have a lucrative sideline in selling the bins when new people move in or when the bins are lost/stolen (‘fire in wheelie bin’ was a daily nib on several newspapers I’ve worked on). The Inverness Courier found that its local council had charged £160k from selling bins in recent years.
