FOI Friday: Cannabis, university spending, race crimes at the football and asbestos in council buildings

Unpaid court fines tops £4million – Bedfordshire On Sunday

MORE than £4 million in court fines is owed to courts in Bedfordshire, a Freedom of Information request has revealed.

The figures, released by Her Majesty’s Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS), show that last September the amount of fines owed to the county’s courts stood at £4,286,800.

The criminal with 145 crimes to his names – Newcastle Journal

A ONE-MAN crime wave racked up 145 offences in two years, re-offending figures have revealed.

The string of crimes makes the 20-year-old male from Durham the region’s most prolific offender.

He was closely followed by a 38-year-old female and a 45-year-old male who committed 130 crimes each between January 1, 2011, to December 31, 2012, say Durham Constabulary.

In total, the top nine offenders together were responsible for 702 crimes across the force area.

Freedom of Information requests to North East police forces revealed just 19 criminals were behind more than a thousand crimes in the region over the last two years.

1000 council buildings containing Asbestos – North Wales Daily Post

SCHOOLS, leisure centres and public toilets are among more than 1,000 council-owned buildings in North Wales which contain asbestos.

A Freedom of Information request by the Daily Post has revealed that all types of the dangerous substance which is now illegal to use – are found in buildings across the region including the most hazardous material, crocidolite.

The figures showed Gwynedd to have the highest number of buildings containing asbestos with 409 in total, which included Arfon Leisure Centre in Caernarfon, Bangor Swimming Pool and Hafod Y Gest care home in Porthmadog.

Pauper funeral rise in Plymouth – Plymouth  Herald

ALMOST 100 people in Plymouth have been buried in so-called ‘paupers’ graves’.

The depressing statistic paints a harrowing picture of people in the community dying penniless and in isolation.

The figures on state-funded funerals were released to The Herald through the Freedom of Information Act.

But the reality could be much worse, since people who die in hospital are the responsibility of Plymouth Hospitals Trust.

Ho Ho Ho: It wouldn’t be Christmas without Jesus being stolen … and four other festive news favourites (including Christmas Day babies)….

Mince pies. Turkey. Tinsel. The Queen’s Speech in 3D. Traditions are created all the time at Christmas, and it wouldn’t be Christmas without these five Festive-themed stories…

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.

3. Things seized at court

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.

Is the BBC obsessed with regional newspapers?

The BBC Birmingham and Black Country website on Sunday - the Express and Star story is fractionally more important than the Ashes not coming to Edgbaston, apparently

Maybe it was just a slow news weekend in the Midlands. In fact, I know it wasn’t because I’ve seen what’s passed through the Birmingham Mail website since Friday. So I can’t quite work out why a decision by the Wolverhampton Express and Star to close its printing plant in the city and switch to a sister plant in Telford is such big news.

Birmingham and the Black Country is a big old region population wise. There’s a lot happening. And while it’s interesting for media geeks to know that the Express and Star is closing one of its presses, is it really the fourth most important news story in the region?

The story fails to do what all new stories should do: Address how it might impact the reader. Will the paper be out earlier? Will it have fewer editions? Will it mean a change to the look and feel of the paper – more colour for example? All the BBC reports is that it will mean ‘greater efficiency’ for the title – whatever that means.

FOI Friday: Rammed trains, enforced redundancies at councils and a gun licence for a 12-year-old

1. Reasons why teachers are disciplined

The Bradford Telegraph and Argus reports on the number of teachers who faced disciplinary action last year, 69 in total. The local council also reported that the allegations included theft, child protection issues, gross misconduct and drugs misuse. (Source: Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

2. Restorative justice for children

Remember the restorative justice schemed launched by the government a while back? The Derby Telegraph reports on the results, or rather the numbers involved, and the ages of those involved. A boy of 4 was among 166 under 10s – and it was used to sort out more than 7,000 crimes. (Source: Derby Telegraph)

3. Most overcrowded trains

I blogged the other week about the farcical situation at the Department for Transport, which won’t release details on overcrowded trains in case they upset (!) the train operating companies, who then wouldn’t give the department the numbers it needs to work out the new franchises. Really. Anyway, the data they would release – the most overcrowded services into London from two years ago, has been put to good use by the Reading Post, which also put a reporter on one of the trains to see what life was like two years on. A public interest case waiting to happen, I think. (Source: Reading Post)

FOI Friday: Second jobs for firemen, missing art, teens on drugs and CCTV in schools

1. Second jobs for firemen

We’ve seen FOI requests asking for the second jobs for policemen, but the Manchester Evening News this week reported on the second jobs held by firemen in Greater Manchester, of which there appear to be quite a number:

As well as trades such as plasterers or joiners, some are working as butchers, florists, and herdsmen. One fireman was a ‘semi-pro football player’, while one of his colleagues worked as a TV extra. Another firefighter gave his job title as the ‘proprietor of a bouncy castle business’.

2. Attacks on council staff

A good example of widening out an FOI request to get interesting results comes from the Croydon Advertiser, which asked the council for details of attacks on all staff – as opposed to, say, just teachers. The figures which came back weren’t that high, but the details of the attacks led to a good story, not least the one about a traffic warden almost run over after issuing a ticket.

3. Drug abuse among soldiers

Writing negative stories about the armed forces is always interesting territory for any newspaper, but the Western Mail’s FOI-based story which revealed the number of cases of drug abuse among Welsh army regiments was certainly interesting reading.

FOI FRIDAY: 10 things we’ve learnt this week thanks to the Freedom of Information Act

From an increase in food poisoning due to the recession to the councillors who haven’t let the credit crunch reduce their appetite for free food, there’s been a very mixed bag of revelations thanks to FOI this week…

1. The health impact of the recession

The recession has been blamed for many things and, it would appear, you can add rocketing food poisoning cases to the list too. That’s what the Birmingham Mail discovered when it asked the city council for numbers of food poisoning cases in the city, along with the reports from all establishments which got the lowest possible score on its 0-5 scoring system.

2. How many speeding fines per speed camera?

Sticking in the West Midlands, the Wolverhampton Express and Star used FOI to report on how many speeding fines ‘safety’ cameras were issuing. The paper had doped to get the number of fines for each speed camera by location, but this part of the request was refused on the grounds it could lead to vandal attacks on those cameras. This seems a rather flimsy excuse, but at least they released the number of fines issued by the top 10 performing cameras, and which borough they were in. A challenge of the use of the Section 31 exemption (for grounds of law enforcement) might be interesting – is there a public interest reason for knowing how many fines each camera issues, and would this ensure that people slowed down?

3. Domestic violence and the World Cup

The Halifax Courier demonstrated well how to use the Freedom Of Information Act for both a topical story and one which requires quite specific data. It asked for the number of domestic attacks which took place in the area during the World Cup compared to the previous year. The police supplied the info – attacks 6% up.

FOI Friday: 10 things we’ve learnt this week thanks to the Freedom of Information Act

Short measures

Starting this week with a brilliant bit of data which will anger all drinkers and drivers – the number of short measures recorded by trading standards officers in Wales. The Western Mail used FOI to find this out from Welsh councils. The figures are very high.

The cost of council redundancies

It’s one thing, of course, for the coalition government to talk about the need to save money by cutting jobs – but quite another to do so without talking about the main cost involved: redundancy payouts. The Beford Times and Citizen reveals through FOI that the bill in Bedford is already over £2million.

The missing books at Tower Hamlets

Here’s a story you probably won’t see in East End Life, the council paid for newspaper from Tower Hamlets: The number of books which go missing from its libraries every year. The East London Advertiser asked that question under FOI: The answer was 10,000 books which hadn’t been returned to its libraries or Idea Stores (yes, you read that last bit correctly).