Following on from last week’s depressingly regular complaining about the Freedom of Information Act from public bodies, a reminder of the importance of FOI.
The horrifying case of Child Q, a black 15-year-old girl who was strip searched while at school in 2022, led to increased scrutiny on not just the Metropolitan Police, where a damning report found racism was a factor, but other forces and their use of similar practices.
FOI requests made at the time showed 5,279 children had been searched by the Met Police in the previous three years, of which 3,939 (75%) were from ethnically diverse backgrounds. West Yorkshire Police figures show 285 youngsters were subjected to this type of search between the beginning of April 2017 and the end of March 2022.
Now a new report has revealed that one child is strip searched every 14 hours in England. The shocking figures have been revealed in a report released by the Children’s Commissioner, with data showing 3,368 strip searches of children took place between January 2018 and June 2023 in England and Wales
Speaking with Tom Swarbrick on LBC, Dame Rachel de Souza revealed: “I’ve heard of strip searches taking place in chicken shops and outside of parks.”
The new data shows that 457 of those strip searches took place over the past 12 months. But Dame de Souza’s report also showed the number was 42% lower than in 2022 than it was in 2020.
Claiming the figures are “much better now” since Freedom of Information Requests (FOI) revealed the data and allowed it to be published, she added that the numbers remain “deeply concerning”.
Spiking
Almost 3,000 children and teenagers are believed to have fallen victim to drink-spiking or vape-spiking in the last three years, according to an investigation by i.
The exclusive analysis reveals incidents of vape spiking among youngsters are set to reach record levels this year. Often these vapes are laced with spice, the dangerous synthetic narcotic known as a “zombie drug” because it can leave users temporarily paralysed.
Freedom of Information requests sent to police forces in England and Wales show the number of recorded vape spiking incidents last year quadrupled since 2022.
More than a third of incidents between 2021 and 2023 were from spiked drinks, where police data was broken down by method of attack and by year.
Eating disorders
NHS data has revealed that the number of children with eating disorders has doubled over the last eight years.
Some patients are having to wait over a year for treatment, according to a report by The Times. Currently, 12% of patients are waiting more than three months for an appointment, a monumental jump from 1% in 2021.
NHS maximum waiting time standards state that 95% of children and young people referred for assessment or treatment for an eating disorder should receive treatment within one week for urgent cases and four weeks for other cases.
But The Times report found that the longest time a patient spent waiting for treatment was 378 days at Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership NHS Trust. The data was revealed by Freedom of Information requests submitted by the Liberal Democrats.
Ambulance to Amazon
Ambulances have been called out to Amazon warehouses more than 1,400 times in the past five years, the Observer can reveal. The figures, which were described as shocking by the GMB trade union, raise fresh questions about safety at the American giant’s UK workplaces.
Amazon centres in Dunfermline and Bristol had the most ambulance callouts in Britain, listing 161 and 125 across the period respectively. A third of callouts by the Scottish Ambulance Service to the Amazon site in Dunfermline related to chest pains, with other callouts for convulsions, strokes and breathing problems recorded.
E-Scooter crashes
More than 200 crashes involving e-scooters or e-bikes in Essex have been recorded. Startling new figures in a Freedom of Information request show there have been 234 road traffic collisions in the last five years.
Last year Connor Burden, from Canvey, suffered serious injuries and sadly died after a crash occurred in Harvest Road between an e-scooter and van.
From July 2019 to July 2020 just four crashes were reported. Between July 2021 to July 2022, there were 70 that resulted in an injury, and one incident resulted in a death.
Right to buy
Bassetlaw District Council has spent almost £100,000 repurchasing former Right to Buy properties, new figures reveal. Right to Buy legislation allows people renting local authority-owned homes to buy them at a discounted rate.
But RADAR analysis of freedom of information requests shows many councils have ended up buying back properties they had previously sold at a discount through the scheme – with £1.7 billion spent across England.
Across England, 8,600 homes sold under Right to Buy have been subsequently purchased by local authorities, 5,900 of them since 2020.
Littering
Almost 12,000 fines were issued for littering in Kent in a year, new figures suggest.
Freedom of Information requests obtained by BBC South East show that a total of 11,792 fixed penalty notices were issued between April 2023 and March 2024.
Driving test
There is one section of the diving theory test that learners are struggling with more than any other, according to a new report.
A freedom of information request issued to the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency has revealed that over 136,000 incorrect answers have been recorded in the first three months of 2024 for questions on the rules of the road. Rules of the road covers areas such as speed limits and rules at different types of junctions.
Example questions include:
- What’s the national speed limit for cars and motorcycles on a dual carriageway?
- When are you allowed to enter a box junction?
- There are no speed-limit signs on the road. In England, Scotland and Northern Ireland how is a 30mph limit generally indicated?
- Who is authorised to signal you to stop?
- How should you signal if you’re going straight ahead at a roundabout?
The data also shows that in 2023, Scotland had the highest pass rate for the multiple choice (80.2 per cent) and England the highest for the hazard perception (81.1 per cent). Wales was the lowest pass rate on both elements.
Image by Mike Bird on Pexels
