Tagged: Wolverhampton express and star
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: 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.
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: Boozy toddlers, rats on the run, football debt & councillors dodging tax
The Sunday Mercury used FOI to ask local hospitals the ages of those aged 12 or under who were treated for booze addiction, and the total number. One child was aged just three, and a total of 107 under 12s in the region were treated.
Don’t all shout ‘We’ve done this one before’ just yet. The Lynn News in Norfolk reports this week on the number of parking fines dished out by the local hospital to people who hadn’t purchased the correct parking ticket – paying for parking at hospitals is a contentious issue in itself. Around 3,000 fines were issued – of which just half were paid. A wasted paper exercise?
Blog Preston came up with different way of serving up details of rat populations in the city. Whereas many reporters have got year-on-year figures through FOI to report on the growth in rat call outs by local councils, Blog Preston sought the data for each ward – painting a much sharper picture of the problem at a local level.
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)
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 firemenWe’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’.
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.
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.
Like this:
FOI Friday: 10 things we’ve learnt this week thanks to the Freedom of Information Act
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).
FOI Friday: 10 things we’ve learnt this week thanks to the Freedom of Information Act
1. Anti-social behaviour in the library
There was a time when it was the contents of some books which caused most offence in libraries. Apparently that’s not the case now in Lincolnshire, when indecent exposure, public urination
The Southport Visiter reports on the number of dog attacks in Southport – based on figures it got from the local hospital for the last three years. 1000 dog-related injuries in three years seems a worrying trend for an area like Southport.
Did you know FOI could be used to find out some details about botched operations? It seems it can – and this story from the Ipswich Star appears to be proof of that. It oroved a story about a testicle operation resulting in a man becoming infertile using FOI. An open door to finding out how many operations go wrong?
FOI Friday: 10 things we’ve learnt this week thanks to Freedom of Information
No breast implants left at lost property in this week’s FOI wrap, but we do have the credit card action of senior quango bosses, crime on buses, ineffective smoking ban clampdowns, schools dropping Christian assemblies … and Ministry of Defence staff leaking stuff on Twitter….
Asking for the statements of corporate credit cards belonging to executives at Yorkshire Forward proved a good call for a reporter, according to this story in the Wakefield Express.
The papers reports:
Sixty-two executives at the agency, funded by the government and European Union to attract investment to the region, spent more than £170,000 on their executive credit cards in an 18-month period. Credit card statements obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show hotel stays in Brussels, South Africa, America, China and Japan.
Restaurant bills of up to £500 were charged to the credit cards, held by Yorkshire Forward bosses including chairman Terry Hodgkinson and chief executive Tom Riordan.
The number of staff disciplined for ‘leaking’ things from the Ministry of Defence on Twitter and Facebook was revealed this week. There’s a bigger question here, perhaps, in looking at the impact social media has had on public bodies in terms of personnel issues – bullying, perhaps? Are people being ticked off for using it?
Christianity cancelled in school assemblies
I’m not sure if this story began life in the Birmingham Mail as an FOI but it’s one which could certainly be generated via FOI. The Birmingham Mail has established that 23 schools have received dispensation, in Birmingham, to stop holding Christian assemblies.
