Sometimes Freedom of Information requests don’t lead to a response.
Thames Valley Police appears to have a completely useless records system. It’s probably a miracle they get anything done.
At least according to their ability to find anything in response to FOI requests. The Oxford Mail is finding its requests keep hitting the cost limit (while the same request to Dorset Police are being answered).
Sometimes the problem is request just not being answered. The Telegraph & Argus sent an FOI to Bradford Council about extra funding for the development of Darley Street Market on May 20. This week it was still waiting for an answer (though public complaining seems to have paid off).
While it might not always be easy, at least these requests were successful…
Class compensation
As of 30 June, Newcastle University had paid £1.72m to learners who saw disrupted teaching due to action by staff between March and June in response to job cuts.
In response to a freedom of information request, the university said it had identified 12,769 students eligible for compensation payments.
Home fee-paying students can be awarded £100 of compensation for each teaching module disrupted, up to a maximum of £600, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service. International fee-payers can receive £200 of compensation per module, with an upper limit of £1,200.
University leavers
More than 250 staff across key academic and Professional Services departments have left Durham University as a result of the voluntary severance scheme, new information obtained by Palatinate reveals.
The Colleges and Student Experience department saw the highest number of departures, with 37 staff exiting, followed by Computing and Information Services, which lost 28. In total, 17 departments were impacted by the scheme, according to the Freedom of Information response.
University security
King’s College London has reported spending more than £15,000,000 on security staff in the 2024/25 academic year.
A Freedom of Information Request (FOI) obtained by The King’s Tab has revealed the university’s annual spending on both internal, external and overtime security staff between September 2024 and May 2025.
This sum is likely to have included the day-to-day security spending on CCTV systems, door access controls, alarm monitoring systems as well as security staff members, whose duty it is to protect the campus and to be there for students and staff alike.
However, the money was also spent during a time when the university incurred multiple protests, including encampments.
Dog breeders
A new report from FOUR PAWS UK, based on Freedom of Information (FOI) requests to 382 local authorities, suggests that the majority of breeders face minimal oversight even when complaints are made.
Between 2018 and 2023, nearly 10,000 dog breeding licences were issued, but only 35 were revoked or suspended. The data contradicts earlier government claims that local authorities routinely reject or refuse licence applications. According to the report, renewals are often automatic and rarely subject to detailed inspection.
School transport
Tameside council spent more than £1.5m sending children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) to out of borough facilities, last year.
According to recent data taken from a Freedom of Information request (FOI), the authority spent £1,589,155 in 2023/24 on education placements outside of the area. The largest cost in this relates to transporting the children to and from their specialist schools.
This figure has more than doubled since 2019/20 when it cost the local authority £605,166, according to the FOI submitted by the Manchester Evening News.
School fines
Three Derby schools are responsible for more than 1,600 unauthorised absence fines – including for holidays – handed to parents in the past three academic years. Data obtained via Freedom of Information requests filed by the Local Democracy Reporting Service has revealed the school attendance fines requested by Derby and Derbyshire schools.
School headteachers in the city and county are responsible for requesting school absence penalties which are then issued by Derby City Council and Derbyshire County Council respectively. Derby Moor Spencer Academy in Moorway Lane, Littleover, has requested the highest number of fines for unauthorised absences with a combined 762 in the last three academic years with 174 in 2021, 314 in 2022 and 274 in 2023.
Police signed off
A rising number of Surrey Police officers are being signed off due to mental health issues, amid multiple pressures which have left many “really struggling”.
A Freedom of Information request submitted by Police Oracle, a news website which covers policing issues, found that 242 officers had periods of absence in 2024/25 due to stress, depression, anxiety or PTSD.
This is a 26% increase on the previous year, and according to the vice chair of Surrey Police Federation (SPF) Gary Stephen, not a surprise. He said the combination of stress, mounting workloads and pay was creating a “cocktail for tragedy”.
Crime payback
Five villains from the “Diamond Wheezers” Hatton Garden heist gang have paid back just £8k each of their £14 million ill-gotten gains over the last three years.
Six robbers were filmed removing wheelie bins full of gold and jewels over the 2015 Easter weekend in what became one of the biggest raids of the 21st century.
Now new Freedom of Information figures released to The Sun on Sunday show five of the robbers – two of whom have since died – have made repayments of just £8,000 each.
Speeding tractors
Speeding offences involving agricultural tractors have soared in Devon and Cornwall in recent years, according to police data released via a Freedom of Information (FOI) request.
The request, submitted by vehicle leasing firm Select Car Leasing, shows that 16 tractor drivers have been caught exceeding speed limits in the region since 2022.
In 2025 to date, five tractors have been recorded breaking the speed limit, with the fastest reaching 38mph in a 30mph zone. This follows six similar incidents in 2024, compared to three in 2023 and just two in 2022. In both 2022 and 2023, the highest speeds clocked were also 38mph.
Driving days
Liverpudlian drivers are being urged to be extra vigilant on Fridays, as a new Freedom of Information data request to the Merseyside Police, commissioned by Tempcover, has revealed that Fridays saw the highest number of motoring offences in 2024.
However the day of the week with the least number of motoring offences in Liverpool is Sunday, with 17% fewer motoring offences recorded compared to Fridays.
Theme park correspondence
Central Bedfordshire Council held informal, high-level talks with Universal Studios for more than a year before plans for the theme park were officially announced – even suggesting ways to present the project to the public, emails released under Freedom of Information laws reveal.
The correspondence, spanning from December 2023 to April 2025, shows regular contact between council leader Adam Zerny and senior NBCUniversal executives.
In one email, dated 22 December 2023, councillor Zerny pitched Central Bedfordshire’s political independence as a selling point, writing: “At Central Beds our USP is that we’re the only Independent-run county council in the UK… Our Executive are of working age. Which might explain much of the enthusiasm for your project!”
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