Tagged: Carlisle News and Star
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: Councils investing in tobacco, sheep worrying, posh cars and NHS exit packages
Councils investing millions in tobacco firms – Carlisle News and Star
Millions of pounds from pension funds held for local authority workers across Cumbria have been invested in major tobacco firms
Cumbria County Council, which also manages pension money for district councils such as Carlisle Copeland and Allerdale, has confirmed that more than £8m of the fund has been ploughed into the tobacco industry.
The information was released following a Freedom of Information request.
NHS redundancy packages soar – BBC
The cost of exit packages paid out by hospitals in the East of England in a bid to cut staff numbers has increased significantly, the BBC has learned.
Figures from 16 hospital trusts, which provided information for the current financial year, revealed the combined spending on staff exit packages had risen more than eight-fold since 2010.
More than £5m has been paid out by the trusts so far in 2011-12, compared with £1.65m the year before and £605,000 the year before that, according to figures obtained from a Freedom of Information request.
The luxury cars driven by council bosses – Liverpool Post
MERSEYSIDE taxpayers are funding top of the range cars for two Liverpool council executives.
City council chief executive Ged Fitzgerald and director of regeneration Nick Kavanagh, are already two of the highest paid officials with salaries of £197,000 and between £120,000 and £140,000 respectively.
But now it has been revealed they have been driving round the city in luxury vehicles paid for by the taxpayer – while the Labour-run council axed £140m from its budget over two years.
Like this:
FOI Friday: Overdue books, bedding plants, baby scans and trading standards
1. The most overdue books in town
The devil, they say, is in the detail. And the Accrington Observer got plenty of detail back from its FOI request into overdue books at Accrington Library. Not only did they find out the number of books which are overdue, and the total amount owing in fines, but they also got details of the most overdue book at each library in the area. The most overdue book in the borough is a book called Balloon, which should have been returned in 2004. That means £300 of fines are attached to that book – although the cap on fees is just £6.
Here’s one which will probably have critics of FOI claiming its proof of people abusing the act, but to me it’s just another example of councils being held to account. The Evening Chronicle in Newcastle used FOI to find out how much councils were spending on bedding plants. The total is around £500,000. It’s a good example of FOI being used to prompt a debate. On one hand, nice flower beds could be seen as a luxury councils can’t afford, but on the other, they’ll be the things people complain about if axed.
3. The cost of that first baby photo
Accusations flying of ‘stealth taxes’ on expectant mums in Birmingham after an FOI request revealed that the city’s main birthing hospital is making more than £50,000 a year from selling pictures of pregnency scans to happy (and I would imagine, some not so happy) parents-to-be. The £6-a-photo charge is much higher than at other hospitals.
FOI FRIDAY: Murder warnings, data protection, hospital art – and asking for documents
Getting the background on cuts
A good example of why it always pays to ask for the documents related to important spending decisions. An organisation called the Friends of Sonning Common Library is fighting to keep its library, one of three Oxfordshire County Council wants to close. It used FOI to ask for the documents the council had prepared related to the closure, and when these arrived, they revealed that the council felt closing them would “not fully address socio-economic need” and “not fully address rural isolation”. In other words – people will be left more isolated. (Source: Henley Standard)
Police data protection breaches
Data protection breaches revelations were all the rage a couple of years ago, but here’s proof that they are still happening. The Sunday Sun in the North East reports on 100 cases of data protection breaches in the region, including one case where a community support officer is accused of passing on details to criminals. (Source: Sunday Sun)
Wales on Sunday used FOI well to get hold of the amount of money paid out in grants to football, rugby union and cricket from the Welsh government. While it probably came as no surprise that rugby union received £1.5million, it did cause shock that welsh cricket received even more – while football in Wales got just £7,735. Given the scrutiny of public money at the moment, asking councils how much they have given in grants to different sports could generate good stories. (Source: Wales on Sunday)
FOI Friday: Bed blocking, council ad spending, smoke alarms and police accidents
Not one for those who find Casualty squeamish: The Cynon Valley Leader reports on the reaasons why hospitals call out pest control services. Rats, mice, flies and bugs have all been reported at a cost of £258k.
Here’s an interesting statistic found under FOI: the percentage of fire service call outs to houses which didn’t have a smoke alarm. Answer in North Somerset? : 39%. That surprised me as being quite high? (Source: Weston Mercury)
Councils spending money to warn how bad cuts will be
Ok, so The Sun has a political agenda but this FOI is still worth mentioning. They used FOI to ask councils how much they had spent on publicity to warn people of the impact of funding cuts. More than £220k has been spent by 47 councils combined. (Source: The Sun)
Police car accidents … in their own car parks
The Crewe Chronicle reports on an FOI which revealed that Cheshire Police has spent £63k repairing cars involved in 141 bumps which took place in their oen car parks. Details of some of the bumps make for interesting reading.
Workplace compensation payments for council staff
Councils will often offer up information on how much they spend on settling no win, no fee claims from members of the public for trips and slips, but what about the amount they spend on settling claims from staff? The Edinburgh Evening News reports on £10million in payouts in recent years.
A different way to establish the impact of the recession is to look at crime figures. The most obvious one is shoplifting, and the Northampton Chronicle reports on 3,000 peole caught shoplifting. It’s a crime many newspapers overlook normally, but put in context of tough trading conditions, it perhaps has a more important perspective.
Cumbria County Council staff visited eight countries in two years on official business, the News and Star in Carlisle revealed using FOI. The cost, however, was just £2,746 as most trips were paid for by external organisations. Still, quite why 12 headteachers had to visit Denmark to learn how children move from infant to junior school is bemusing.
Ride and run crimes involve people getting a cab ride and running off at the end without paying. The Cambridge News used FOI to find out that there were 70 such incidents in Cambridge last year, according to police. Cabbies say the problem is much worse.
Covered on this blog more than once before, but worth flagging up again, is the bed blocking FOI. Hospitals keep details of how many ‘bed days’ are lost to bedblocking, and it is possible they can say how long the longest bed blocking case has gone on for. In North Wales, it’s two years. (Source: Daily Post North Wales)
In this job-short times, you’d think there wouldn’t be much call for a recruitment consultant when a council wanted to find a new chief executive. The Evening Chronicle reports on a £22k spend on consultants to find a new chief executive, only to get 20 applicants and then decide none were suitable.
FOI Friday (On a Tuesday again): Jet-setting council bosses, over 50s redundancies and racist schoolkids
1. ‘Culling staff aged over 50′ claim
A fascinating FOI from an organisation called Wise Owls, which campaigns for older workers, made an impact in the Carlisle News and Star. It revealed, using FOI, that of 24 people made redundant this year, 14 had been over 50. An FOI which could run and run this year? (Source: News and Star)
Fascinating figures from the Manifesto Club, the civl liberties group, which used FOI to find out how many reports of children being racist and homophobic were being logged by councils. The numbers are somewhat mindboggling – and proof of the stories you can get if you know the data councils store. (Source: Daily Telegraph)
3. Fat kids fail to lose weight
A good example of returning to a public project to see whether it has worked out, demonstrated by the Aberdeen Press and Journal. It asked NHS Grampian to reveal how many children had lost weight through a Healthy Weight Intervention Programme. Of 150, the answer was: 6. (Source: Press and Journal)
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: 10 things we’ve learnt this week thanks to the Freedom of Information Act
We start this week with one of those FOI stories which will have the anti-FOI brigade sucking their teeth as saying ‘What a waste of money.’ The Mail on Sunday reported on complaints made by MPs to the Commons catering department. One went so far as to say the menu depicted a Sunday roast with three slices of beef, but s/he only got two. Another complained about the fact HP sauce had been substituted for something else. This FOI can surely be applied all over the place – councils, hospitals etc?
Value of regional development agencies
With question marks hanging over the future of regional development agencies, the Wolverhampton Express and Star comes up with a good story from FOI. It sought the results of a much-publicised £5million project rub by Advantage West Midlands which aimed to help graduates get job. Only one in five who took part got jobs as a result. Value for money?
Low attended university courses
The Carlisle News and Star found out, using FOI, that 34 courses run by the University of Cumbria had fewer than 10 people on them – raising questions about value for money at an establishment which is heavily in debt.
FOI Friday: 10 things we’ve learnt this week thanks to the Freedom of Information Act
The Edingburgh Evening News reports this week on the results of an FOI request submitted by a member of the public, which asked for copies of credit card expenses submitted by senior police officers in the Borders and Lothian police area – including trips to McDonald’s.
A summary of their claims between September and November last year, released following a freedom of information request by a member of the public, shows that officers spent more than £11,000 on credit cards issued by the force in three months.
Credit cards were given to 18 officers to pay for expenses while conducting investigations, or attending conferences or training.
This isn’t the first time I’ve mentioned FOI requests which have sought the details of credit card statements for accounts belonging to a public authority, but it appears to be worth mentioning again as it could be a very rich area.
2. What price a political stunt?
A particularly timely FOI result in the Western Morning News this week, which sought to use FOI to work out the actual cost of holding a meeting of the Cabinet in Exeter. The Cabinet Office said it paid around £51k – but the police say there are ‘too many budget codes’ to be able to say how much it cost them. Oddly, West Yorkshire Police could work it out when it was in their area.
