New body covered by Freedom of Information just dropped.
On Sunday (May 25) South Western Railway (SWR) became the first train services to transfer back into public control under new legislation to create Great British Railways. Public ownership means becoming a public body covered by the FOI Act.
Some train companies are already covered by FOI (such as Transport for London or ScotRail).
But eventually services across the whole of the UK will be covered by the Act. All passenger services will return to public ownership by the end of 2027 as contracts end.
One option for what to do with your new FOI-ing powers…
Fare dodgers
More than €20 million was lost in revenue on public transport services last year due to fare dodgers.
Figures released under freedom of information legislation by the National Transport Authority show the highest fare evasion rates in 2024 were on DART and commuter rail services. Almost 7 per cent of passengers not having a valid ticket for their journey.
Drugs on line
A Freedom of Information request to Transport for London (TfL) was submitted by The Spectator, requesting information on the number of drug offences committed on London Underground since 2020.
It turns out a whopping 2,481 incidents have been recorded by British Transport Police over the past five years, including a record high of 589 in 2023/24.
Replaceable
The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology has estimated that automating routine tasks in the public sector could deliver savings of £36bn.
According to DSIT documents obtained by Politico through a Freedom of Information request, this projection is based on an assessment by the department of the percentages of work done in the civil service at each seniority level that are routine and therefore automatable.
- 62% of tasks done by administrative assistants, the lowest grade in the civil service, are routine
- 48% of tasks by executive officers are routine
- 43% of tasks by senior executive officers are routine
- 23% of tasks by higher executive officers are routine
- 0% of tasks by the most senior civil servants are routine
Road accidents
Smart motorways have a vehicle breakdown rate nearly three times higher than conventional motorways, new figures show. National Highways statistics show 56% of breakdowns logged on England’s motorways last year happened on smart motorways.
That is despite the roads only making up 20% of the total motorway network. The 141,149 smart motorway breakdown incidents recorded in 2024 was an average of 387 per day.
The AA described the statistics, released in response to a Freedom of Information request, as “a major concern”.
Roadworks
I’m not sure this a definitive answer, given quite a lot of local authorities were skipped.
A new report has said that on average, the City of Edinburgh Council spends the most time on road repairs in the UK.
James Harding, of tyre retailer Blackcircles, conducted the research and found, of all the councils who responded, Edinburgh Council takes the longest with roadwork projects, averaging 80 calendar days.
The company reportedly submitted Freedom of Information requests to 78 local authorities across the UK, with data collected from 45 of those.
Grubby gardens
Residents in a Brighton postcode have submitted more complaints about gardens than any other in the UK.
Airtasker submitted Freedom of Information requests to every local authority across the UK. Only London, with 1,333 complaints in 12 months, had more than Brighton and Hove, which had 452 complaints.
These complaints were predominantly about overhanging trees and bushes, and exceeded those from more populated cities such as Liverpool and Manchester, which had 341 and 312 complaints respectively. Other common complaints in Brighton included overgrown gardens, unruly hedges, and rubbish accumulation.
Swag
Who doesn’t love a free pen…taxpayers possibly.
Bedford Borough Council spent thousands of pounds on branded merchandise and staff away days in recent years, according to information released following a Freedom of Information request. Purchases included 5,000 pens and team-building events with flower arranging and FitSteps dance sessions.
The Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) submitted the request after a government announcement in April ‘banning’ Whitehall departments from buying promotional merchandise or holding non-essential staff away days.
Image by Antoni Shkraba Studio on Pexels
