FOI FRIDAY: Council lunches, old drug mules, doctor spending and the smoking ban legacy

What’s on the menu for councillors? < < < Sunday Mail SCOTLAND’S biggest council have increased their spending on gourmet dinners – while hiking the price of meals for OAPs and the vulnerable. Glasgow City councillors slashed the subsidies for welfare meals in a bid to save £306,000. The Labour-controlled local authority hiked the cost

20 FOI ideas to kick off 2011

There has been a spike in traffic coming to my blog this week using the search term ‘FOI ideas.’ Quiet first week back at the office maybe? So, here are 20 FOI ideas to kick off 2011, in no particular order. Happy new year! 1. Call outs to pubs and clubs Which pubs and clubs

FOI Friday: Speed cameras, fines in a free car park, under-aged sex and naughty BBC employees

1. Fun with speed cameras Authorities such as councils and police forces have been very reluctant to divulge information about speed cameras in recent times. For example, West Midands Police refused to reveal which cameras made the most cash for fear of vigilante attacks on the cameras involved. But Wales on Sunday managed to get

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

The councils which tell us to recycle – but don’t do it themselves The Northern Echo came up with a great story thanks to FOI – asking councils how much they spent on promoting recycling. It also asked what recycling they carry out – and remarkably few composted food, recycled green waste or even made

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

1. Local jobs for local workers? We kick off this week with one which could be replicated in lots of places. The Manchester Evening News asked the region’s passenger transport executive for any statistics which revealed where construction workers employed on the Metrolink extension came from. This sort of stat is increasingly kept by public