Tagged: FOI ideas
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: 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: 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: Unusual council waiting lists, a housing crisis, and the theft of a six-foot cardboard copper
1. Police officers disciplined for racism
Proof of the value of FOI disclosure logs – for journalists anyway. The BBC reports on seven police officers from West Mercia Police disciplined for racism. The BBC, which used the infamous ‘BBC has learnt’ in the intro, confirms later in the piece it found the information on West Mercia’s disclosure log.
2. Life-sized copper stolen from police station
I know the ‘things stolen from a police station’ FOI has been done a lot, but I wanted to include this one, simply because of what was stolen. According to the Bucks Free Press:
The catchphrase ‘you’re nicked’ has been spun on its head by daring thieves who pinched items including a life-size cut-out of a copper from police.
The six-foot tall cardboard crime deterrent was put under the long arm of a crook at a police station in the Wycombe LPA, information obtained by the Bucks Free Press reveals.
A truncheon and ‘five blue strobe flashing lights’, likely to be from a police car, were also nabbed from Wycombe police along with an item marked ‘other’.
FOI Friday: Problem families, housing benefit cheats, kids in cells and unsolved crimes
1. How many ‘problem families’ have moved into your area?
It’s not often it’s worth flagging up an FOI request before a result has come back, but this is a little different. The Ledbury Reporter newspaper reports on how Ledbury Town Council is trying to find out how many ‘problem families’ have been allocated housing in the town from outside the area. According to the council, such allocations take place under an arrangement called the Multi Agency Public Protection Arrangements.
2. Youth clubs which close too early
A little different, but fascinating all the same. Are councils doing enough to keep young people out of trouble in the evening? I suppose it depends on your view as to whether it is a council’s job to keep young people out of trouble. The Evening Standard clearly thought so, asking all councils for the opening and closing times of youth clubs. Most close before 7pm – just before the time of day when young people are, according to the paper, most likely to commit crime.
Ok, so we’ve seen this FOI before, but if ever there was proof that just because it’s been done somewhere else shouldn’t mean you don’t do it as well, it’s this. The Birmingham Mail asked the question of the number of weapons seized at courts. The answer was 40,000. Really.
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: Private detectives, bus lanes, stray dogs and mental health abscondees
Spending on private detectives
A different take on how councils snoop on people – how much one council spent on hiring private detectives. Answer: £100,000 at Carmarthenshire Council, reports the Swansea Evening Post.
Fed up of FOI requests about speeding tickets or parking fines? How about asking how many bus lane infringements have occurred, as reported by the Bucks Free Press.
Rather sad figures from the Coventry Telegraph – they revealed, using FOI, that 10% of all stray dogs rounded up in the city get put down.
Patients walking out of mental health units
An FOI story here which is the result of an FOI by a local MP – correctly credited by the Leicester Mercury. Loughborough MP Nicky Morgan says her FOI research shows 40,000 mental health patients just walked out of units, with over 3,000 of those in Leicestershire.
FOI Friday: Dirty schools, lying parents, superbug deaths and attacks on postment
Children lose school places after parents lie < < < Birmingham Mail
RECORD numbers of Birmingham children are being left devastated by the city council withdrawing their prized place at school because the youngsters’ parents lied on their application form.
The local authority has taken places off eight pupils who were due to start their new schools this month after being tipped off by the mums and dads’ neighbours.
The number has shot up from five youngsters having their place withdrawn in 2010 and three in 2009.
Dirty School kitchens < < < Liverpool Echo
A FILTHY school canteen plagued by rodents posed an “imminent risk” to Merseyside pupils’ health, a report has revealed.
Mounds of mouse droppings were discovered in the kitchens of Bedford primary in Bootle in a surprise hygiene spot-check.
Pellets were even found in a bain-marie, a hot cupboard used to keep food warm for the 220 children who are served school meals, and near to where sandwiches were prepared.
40 deaths related to superbugs < < < Teesside Gazette
MORE than 40 people have died at two Teesside hospitals over the last three years after contracting a killer superbug.
A Freedom of Information request has shown the number of patients who died at the University Hospital of North Tees in Stockton, and the University Hospital of Hartlepool after contracting Clostridium Difficile (C.diff).
FOI Friday: Strange weapons, cost of a big fire, prison menus and revisiting attacks at hospitals
Newcastle Evening Chronicle: Reports compiled about big fire show concerns over safety equipment
EFFORTS to fight a giant blaze were hit by concerns over safety equipment.
Internal fire service documents seen by the Chronicle reveal the fire caused damage to the neck straps on firefighters’ breathing masks that did not meet required standards.
The fault was raised in a report compiled by chiefs and an investigation was recommended.
The documents, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, also reveal how the cost of the operation exceeded £50,000.
Details released under the Freedom of Information Act show police have confiscated hundreds of unusual items which have been used in attacks or deemed offensive weapons.
The haul also includes a pizza shovel, a quill pen and a pool ball in a sock.
Newcastle Journal: £4million seized back from criminals in North East
MORE than £4m was seized from North East criminals in just two years as police used court powers to strip them of their ill-gotten gains.
Criminals on Tyneside and in Northumberland paid back nearly £700,000 in cash while, following examinations by forensic accountants, fraudsters have also had to pay nearly £2.5m to cover the cost of their assets.
Financial investigators calculated the true value of their benefits to determine exactly what they owed from their businesses.
FOI Friday: Tonsils, waiting in ambulances, thefts from courts and some interesting emails
Courts were told to push for tougher sentences
When doing FOI Friday, I try and pick FOI stories which can be replicated elsewhere. Based on that criteria, including this story from The Guardian seems a bit odd. Basically, the Guardian got hold of court emails which encouraged magistrates to direct riot-related offences to crown court for sentence. The reason I’ve included it is because it demonstrates just how powerful FOI can be if you go beyond numbers and ask for documents. Emails can be a rich source of stories – from memos directing traffic wardens where to target for parking through to stuff like this.
There’s something particularly good about this use of FOI. Yes, it’s about hospital admissions relating to drink, but it’s just so thorough. The Sunday Sun reveals how the number of admissions to hospital for alcohol-related matters have rocketed in five years. But they also asked for age-group breakdown – those in their 40s and 50s are the biggest group – the youngest admissions, and a breakout for cases treated in A&E alone. Good stuff.
