FOI Friday: Teachers ignoring FGM advice, fines for school parking, food shoplifting and hospital repairs backlogs

Teachers ignoring FGM guidance < London Evening Standard Less than half of headteachers in London have read official guidance on stopping female genital mutilation, new figures revealed today. The guidance, which tells teachers how to identify girls who are at risk or who have suffered mutilation, was emailed to every school in the country. But

FOI Friday: Air gun attacks, stressed out students, pauper funerals and troubled families

Bedroom tax rent arrears < Wolverhampton Express and Star Out of 3,803 Sandwell people affected by the removal of the Government’s spare room subsidy, 2,432 have now fallen into rent arrears. But the Labour-led council has not yet evicted anyone for falling into arrears as a result of what has become widely known as the

FOI Friday: Suspects released by mistake, crimes in hospitals, careless coppers and big pay outs for teachers

Wrongly-released offenders < Manchester Evening News A sex offender, violent thugs and burglars are among a long list of charged suspects released without trial because of blunders by Greater Manchester Police. Dozens of charged suspects walked free over the last six years before they reached trial – with more this year than any of the

FOI Friday: Prostitutes wanting to work in schools, hunger on the rise, counselling on the underground and 11-year-old drug runners

Prostitutes applying for jobs in schools (or reasons criminal checks failed) < Nottingham Post PROSTITUTES, shoplifters and even someone who assaulted a child have applied for jobs in schools in Nottinghamshire over the past three years. Other crimes committed by those wanting to work with children include assaulting a police officer, growing cannabis and racially

FOI FRIDAY: Ambulance delays, lack of dentists, data-snooping coppers and dodging conviction for assault

How to dodge a conviction if you assault someone < Brighton Argus Thousands of criminals including sex offenders, arsonists and violent offenders have avoided conviction. Sussex Police introduced community resolution in 2011 to deal with low-level crimes. But The Argus can reveal that the policy has been used more than 11,000 times in the past

FOI FRIDAY: Jail smuggling, brand conscious police, cost-saving consultants and golden hellos for paramedics

‘Golden Hellos’ for new paramedics < Eastern Daily Press The East of England Ambulance Service paid the incentives to 59 qualified paramedics in 2013 to try and resolve the organisation’s staff shortage. However, five of the new recruits had to repay the £2,000 golden hello payments after leaving the trust, according to new figures. The

The 12 days of Local Pressmasness: Five festively themed thefts

  A Christmas tradition almost as old as, well, newspapers themselves: Crimes which usually make nibs suddenly become something much more important when there is a Christmas angle. I’ll do ‘Christmas wrecked by’ in the next couple of days, but today, we’ll focus on strange festive things stolen, some of which make you ask ‘why’

FOI FRIDAY: Shop burglaries, looked after children a long way from home, army redundancies and homeless in B&Bs

‘Looked after’ children housed in different counties < < < Bury Free Press More than 130 looked after children in Suffolk are being placed outside the county as the demand for placements increases. Following a Freedom of Information request, the Bury Free Press can reveal that upto the end of February 135 out of the

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: Crime-ridden leisure centres, true truancy figures, NHS lay offs and Olympic torch costs

Apologies for the delay in the latest FOI Friday – a bad dose of chickenpox in our house has made keeping on top of it harder than usual! As ever, this is list is compiled using Google News and from suggestions sent to me on Twitter @davidhiggerson Crimes committed at leisure centres < < <