Another weekly FOI round-up and some more of the greatest hits…
But after last week’s encouragement to use FOI for road-related campaigning, here’s another good example of FOI in action.
Parent councils from 53 primary and secondary schools – representing more than half of Edinburgh’s state schools – have written to MSPs and councillors, urging an increase in road safety funding, which they say is needed to keep children safe.
The parents obtained figures through Freedom of Information (FoI) legislation showing that, as of June 2024, there were 96 red flag sites on Edinburgh City Council’s speed reduction list. But only 19 roads have been improved in the past five years. And the parents say at that rate, it would take 25 years before all the roads currently on the list saw improvement works carried out.
Knife crime
Figures show that out of the 898 recorded murders in the UK over the last three years, 443 of these murders were committed using a knife, stabbing, or a sharp instrument.
Data gathered from Freedom of Information Requests (FOI) from 38 police forces across the UK between 2022-2024 has highlighted the worrying rise of knife crime.
The largest number of murders due to knife crime was in London, with 222 murders in the last two years, and of these 145 (65%) were due to a blade or sharp object.
Only Fans
More than a thousand alleged crimes linked to OnlyFans have been reported to police over the last five years, a Mirror investigation has found.
Through Freedom of Information Act requests, we found that police are being asked to investigate claims of rapes linked to the making of videos for the site, along with allegations of blackmail, stalking, harassment, child abuse material and threats of violence.
School fines
A Freedom of Information (FOI) request to Derby City Council asking how many fines had been issued to parents over the last five academic years shows that since the 2020/21 academic year, the council has issued 12,494 fines across the city, averaging at 2,499 per year.
Assuming each fine represents an individual child, this means the parents of around one in 4 children across Derby have been handed fines, with the 2022/23 spring census recording 45,731 school-age children across the city.
Mobile thefts
Masked phone-snatching gangs using 70mph e-bikes are fuelling a surge in mobile thefts with more than 225 stolen on average every day across the UK, The Independent can reveal.
Data obtained through Freedom of Information requests shows there were at least 83,900 phone snatching offences recorded in the 12 months to July last year – almost double the 45,800 five years previously.
Low emission zones
More than £70m has been paid in penalty charge notices (PCNs) by London’s drivers from the Ultra Low Emission Zone (Ulez) in six years, official data shows.
Drivers in the borough of Croydon (£4m) paid more than any other since its introduction in 2019 followed by Hillingdon (£3.8m), Ealing (£3.7m) and Enfield (£3.5m).
The figures come from a Freedom of Information (FOI) request, external which shows that £5.6m was paid in penalty charge notices in 2024, less than half of the £11.8m paid the year before.
Dog mess
Someone on my road has taken to spray-painting the mess dog owners haven’t picked up, which might be a more effective solution than this…
Jersey’s courts have fined one person in five years for not clearing up after their dog, a new Freedom of Information Act request has revealed.
The fine, issued in St Saviour in 2023, was the only dog-related fine with none being issued for dogs without licenses or threatening wildlife over the same period.
Tool thefts
Fewer than one in 300 investigations by Essex Police involving stolen work tools last year resulted in a charge.
Nine in ten investigations were dropped without a suspect being identified, and tools were recovered in fewer than one in 100 cases, a Freedom of Information (FOI) request submitted by the BBC also revealed.
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