FOI Friday: How the Local Democracy Reporter scheme is making the most of FOI

It’s just under a year since the contracts were awarded for the Local Democracy Reporting Service, the scheme funded by the BBC which is aiming to ensure more councils are covered in more depth. But it’s not just through council meeting reports that authorities are being scrutinised – the LDRS reporters are also making fine

FOI Friday: Brexit and the NHS, NHS secrecy, police secrecy and street-level data success

Brexit continues to be a happy hunting ground for information-hungry journalists … even if the story once again appears to be about the reluctance of those in power to actually talk about their planning for the biggest British government change in a generation. This week, GazetteLive in Teesside reported on the reliance local NHS services have on

FOI Friday: The power of FOI, pesky press officers, school place race and mouse droppings

The power of FOI confirmed in Essex You don’t have to look far to find critics of the Freedom of Information Act within journalistic circles. It’s not a replacement for investigative journalism, it’s too easy to ignore, it’s never going to uncover Watergate and so on. And, of course, if the point of FOI was

FOI Friday: Criminals applying to be taxi drivers, citizenship test failures and common names for crooks

Would be taxi drivers and their criminal convictions < Lincolnshire Live Sex offenders who have assaulted children in the past have applied to become taxi drivers in Lincolnshire, new data has revealed. Figures from the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) show that those who applied to become cabbies between 2012/13 and 2015/16 included people with

FOI Friday: Stories made possible thanks to the law politicians keep trying to kill

Criminals applying to be taxi drivers < ChroniceLive Killers, rapists and potential terrorists are among those who have applied to be taxi drivers in the North East. An investigation by ChronicleLive shows the amount of dangerous criminals trying to become cabbies – with arsonists and violent yobs just some being given licences. Separate figures revealed

FOI Friday: 10 stories waiting to be uncovered near you

An increasingly infrequent look at stories being made possible thanks to FOI £120,000 of fines for parking in disabled bays < Shropshire Star Drivers have been fined more than £120,000 by Shropshire Council in the last three years for parking in disabled spaces without a blue badge. Falling numbers of retained firefighters < BBC The

FOI: A hospital’s shameful secret, and the pathetic attempts to keep the public in the dark

The Manchester Evening New broke a story on Wednesday night which was result of months of hard work. It was a story which should chill the bones of any parent living in North Manchester, or any journalist who believes that those running hospitals should do so in an open and transparent way. I’m not alone

FOI Friday: The stories made possible thanks to FOI in September 2016

A look at some of the stories made possible thanks to FOI laws in the UK – most of which can easily be replicated elsewhere… Ambulances called to one house 500 times < Kent Online Ambulance crews were called to 595 emergency calls from one private address in one year. The astonishing figure came to

The FOI response which revealed a little too much

Ever sent an email then realised you’ve probably said too much? I think we all have. Ever sent an email then realised you’ve probably said too much, then realised your email will auto-publish on a website which helps people submit Freedom of Information requests? That’ll just be Natalie Hatswell of Devon and Cornwall Police then.

FOI Friday: School holidays, council houses, non-paying councillors (again) and more

Asbesto in publicly-owned homes <Beyond the Pillars Blog Beyond the Pillars, which covers issues involving the North Ireland government, used FOI recently to find out how many homes owned by the NI Housing Executive – in other words, council homes – had asbestos in them. The answer: 70,000. 70,000! Three-fifths of publicly-owned homes, in other