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

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

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

FOI Friday: Brothel raids, B&B costs, farm thefts and cautions for violent crimes

1.Houses of multiple occupancy Kicking off with a story which may not have been sourced under FOI, but which could be: The Liverpool ECHO reports on the number of properties which have been licensed for use as ‘houses of multiple occupancy’, of which just 25% had planning permission? Why is this an issue? Well, if

FOI Friday: Speaking clocks, hospital parking fines, gagging orders and snooping on council staff

1. Court cases dropped for ‘not being in the public interest’ Some fascinating numbers reported in the London Evening Standard as a result of an FOI request to the Crown Prosecution Service, which was asked to reveal how many prosecutions in London were dropped ‘because they were no longer in the public interest’ – often

FOI Friday: Overdue books, bedding plants, baby scans and trading standards

1. The most overdue books in town The devil, they say, is in the detail. And the Accrington Observer got plenty of detail back from its FOI request into overdue books at Accrington Library. Not only did they find out the number of books which are overdue, and the total amount owing in fines, but

FOI Friday: Cyberslackers, free parking, cabbie complaints and olympic tickets

The civil servant ‘cyberslackers’ story goes regional   A couple of weeks ago, I blogged about an FOI request which made the pages of the Daily Telegraph concerning internet usages at the Department for Transport. Although the data released was of dubious quality in terms of working out which site was viewed the most – it

FOI FRIDAY: Drowned dogs, toxic waste, taser guns and cheer-me-up consultants

  FOI stories this week have covered everything from the buildings council own to the hospital which admitted paying consultants to advise on how to cheer up patients. Here are 10 FOI stories which could work for you…  1. What buildings do councils own? Here’s a clever FOI to kick things off this week. The

FOI Friday: Maternity complaints, metal thefts, paying to access phone records and money from recycling,

  Complaints about maternity wards (Sunday Sun) A BABY was cut across the face as it was delivered by a routine Caesarean section procedure at a North hospital, the Sunday Sun reported after using FOI to get hold of details of complaints made about maternity units in the region. It was one of almost 200

FOI Friday: Dog poop, online browsing, police response times and racism in schools

1. What public sector workers look at online  I think it’s safe to say this one could run, and run, and run. A freedom of information request to the Department for Transport revealed the top 1,000 most visited websites from Department for Transport computers. Some amusing surprises in there. 2. Alternative therapies in schools   According