Are Freedom of Information responsibilities getting harder to dodge?
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has been taking FOI enforcement action again. It has issued Practice Recommendations to most of the Northern Ireland government departments.
Earlier this year, the ICO assessed all nine departments and found problems with eight. Only the Department of Communities escaped a Practice Recommendation.
The main issue was failing to publish quarterly statistics about the number of requests received, how many responses took too long, and how many were answered in full or refused. Many published annual statistics, but some were more out of date – the Department of Health last published in 2023.
Meanwhile, the Scottish Information Commissioner has delayed an investigation into Scottish Government’s deleting of WhatsApp messages during the pandemic. It’s blamed staff and funding shortages.
The proposed Bill to make changes to the FOI Act in Scotland would introduce penalties for the destruction of material that could be subject to public scrutiny. The Scottish Government said its ended the use of WhatsApp.
Long trolley waits
The government has been urged to get a grip on long A&E waits with campaigners saying it is the rot eating away at the heart of the NHS.
The plea by Age UK comes as it publishes a report detailing “heartbreaking” stories of how older people are suffering, spending hours in corridors and side-rooms.
The report pointed to data obtained under the Freedom of Information Act from NHS England which showed there were more than 1.7 million 12-hour waits in 2024-25 at major hospitals – around one in 10 of those who attended A&Es.
Two thirds of them were experienced by people aged over 60.
No staff
The NHS staffing crisis means one in three senior doctor positions are unfilled in parts of the country, a report warns.
Data released under Freedom of Information laws found 33,000 consultant jobs were listed on the NHS Jobs website between 2022 and 2025 in England and Wales – enough to staff more than 66 large hospitals. The report in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) found the NHS spent £674million on expensive agency doctors in 2024/25 as managers regularly take 12 months to fill a vacancy.
More long waits
Statistics released to Scottish Labour under freedom of information legislation show the longest recorded wait for inpatient or day case plastic surgery treatment at 2,952 days on June 30 of this year. Another wait for ear, nose and throat treatment has stretched to 2,495 – almost seven years.
There was also a wait of more than six years for general surgery and another of more than five-and-a-half years in paediatrics.
The figures illustrate the longest waits for a single inpatient or day case procedure, which can be moved or changed for a variety of reasons. The median wait for inpatient treatment of all kinds, according to the latest figures from the three months to June of this year, was 63 days.
Blue Badge fines
A council has issued 12,010 fines for blue badge parking misuse over the past five years.
Hampshire County Council handed out penalties totaling £380,522, according to figures released through a Freedom of Information request.
The data showed a steady rise in the number of fines issued, from 749 fines worth £21,175 in 2020, to 5,418 fines worth £170,044 last year.
Missed appointments
Missed appointments have cost Essex NHS trusts more than £130million in five years. Freedom of Information requests submitted to NHS trusts across England and Wales revealed that Essex NHS Trusts reported a total of 814,289 missed appointments between 2019 and 2024.
East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust (ESNEFT) reported a total of 272,792 missed appointments in five years. This cost the trust more than £43,600,000.
Dental complaints
New data shows that there have been approximately 2,286 complaints made regarding dental care to the NHS Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) across England in the tax year 2024-2025.
Patient Claim Line sent Freedom of Information requests to 42 NHS ICBs to find out the number of formal complaints made about dental care across England.
At Greater Manchester ICB, the most common complaint regarding dental care was in relation to treatment (76 complaints), followed by behaviour (63 complaints) and then appointments and waiting (35 complaints).
Closing down
More than 20 rural schools have closed over the last eight years in North Yorkshire, figures have shown, amid warnings that this is setting off a “spiral of terminal decline” for the countryside.
The Country Land and Business Association has conducted a number of Freedom of Information requests, which show that tens of thousands of pubs, shops, bus routes and essential services have closed in rural communities across the UK in the last year.
Attacks on police
A fresh call for police across Perth and Kinross to be issued with body-worn cameras has been made after figures revealed the level of violence committed against officers in the region.
It comes after a Freedom of Information request from the Scottish Conservatives revealed a total of 1,532 reports of assault on police officers by members of the public in Mid Scotland and Fife during the period from 2022 to the end of June 2025. A total of 300 of those reports took place in Perth and Kinross during that time period.
Quitting
More than 1,700 cops have quit Police Scotland in the last two years, according to figures released by Police Scotland under Freedom of Information (FOI).
The FOI figures show 717 officers have taken early retirement since 2023 with 225 leaving for other jobs, 117 retiring on medical grounds and 75 transferring to other forces. Fifteen were sacked and ten died from natural causes. A further 286 left citing “personal reasons” with 19 leaving before they had completed their basic training and eleven quitting to go back to college or university.
Speed cameras
A roadworks speed camera has been revealed as the most prolific speed camera in Scotland racking up an estimated £700,000 in driver fines. The temporary trap was situated at the junction of the M8 and M80 in Glasgow’s east end – known as the Provan Interchange.
Last year it detected 6,939 speeding offences and had the highest “volume of enforcement” in the country. The numbers of offences detected by the temporary speed camera have been revealed by Police Scotland under Freedom of Information who say some fines are not always paid.
Cancelled fireworks
Halloween FOI request!
Huge portions of information, and in some cases entire documents, have been redacted in a Freedom of Information (FOI) request relating to the provision and cancellation of Halloween fireworks in Fermanagh and Omagh.
The Impartial Reporter asked the council for copies of all correspondence over the past year, specifically relating to the provision and cancellation of the Council’s Halloween fireworks event.
A total of seven documents were returned as a result of the FOI request, with the majority being heavily or entirely redacted. One document features a six-column table, with each column blacked out. The Council claims that providing certain information will “inhibit Council staff from communicating freely, frankly and completely”.
Ghosts and demons and ghouls
Another Halloween FOI request!
Dorset residents have reported sightings of more than 100 demons, ghosts, monsters and aliens since 2019. A Freedom of Information request (FOI) has revealed the number of supernatural reports to Dorset police from January 2019 to December 2024.
Topping the list of spooky encounters across the counter were demon sightings – a total of 42 were recorded. Next on the list was reports of aliens with 33 calls to police made about potential green men from Mars appearing. Ghosts were reported a total of 32 times whilst Dorset Police received 22 reports of monsters.
Bonfire Night fires
Not the planned ones! Another timely FOI.
Data obtained by Totalkare via a Freedom of Information (FOI) request in September 2025, shows that Humberside Fire and Rescue Service attended 66 emergency incidents on Bonfire Night last year (November 5, 2024).
In the year from September 1, 2024 and August 31, 2025, the force attended, on average, 11 emergency incidents daily. Looking at other notable events during the year, there were 21 emergency callouts on Halloween 2024, 12 emergency callouts on New Years Eve 2024, and 13 emergency callouts on New Years Day 2025.
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