For everyone’s sake, I won’t be sending a press release every time I send a Freedom of Information request.
Sacha Lord, described as “the prominent Night Time Economy Adviser for Greater Manchester” (he resigned last January) and Chair of the Night Time Industries Association, has launched “a comprehensive Freedom of Information request to HM Treasury, demanding answers over the government’s controversial business rates reforms announced in the recent Budget“.
The FOI request, submitted through legal representatives, seeks extensive documentation from the Treasury covering the period from January 2023 to the Budget announcement on 26 November 2025. The 11-point request demands access to ministerial submissions, economic appraisals, impact assessments, and correspondence with key industry bodies.
I’m guessing the legal representatives didn’t advise that 11-point requests for extensive documentation run a high risk of being refused on cost grounds.
No FOI Friday next week, but it’ll be back in the new year!
This week’s FOI stories…
Delayed discharges
This used to be information that didn’t need an FOI. However, the collection was discontinued during Covid, and hasn’t completely been replaced.
Figures obtained by the Liberal Democrats under Freedom of Information request (FoI) show that huge numbers of days are being lost in Yorkshire by healthy people who cannot be discharged, also known as bed blockers.
In 2024, some 224,936 days in Yorkshire hospitals were taken by patients who were fit enough to leave, but there was no space in the community.
Agency nurses
More than £25.6 million of public money was spent on agency nurses by the Belfast Health and Social Care (HSC) Trust in just five months, it can be revealed.
Figures seen by Belfast Live following a Freedom of Information request show the Trust spent £25,625,600 between June and October 2025 to cover nursing staffing shortfalls.
During that period, the Trust issued 28,423 shift requests to external agencies for band five registered nurses, covering areas including General wards, A&E, ICU and Paediatrics. A total of 26,392 shifts were filled, meaning 92.85% of the requested shifts were covered by agency staff.
Outsourced scans
Hospitals are having to send patient X-Rays and CT and MRI scans to place like Australia and the United Arab Emerits for analysis due to a shortage of radiologists in Northern Ireland.
Information obtained by UTV under Freedom of Information reveals that almost £20 million has been spent over the past three years outsourcing the critical service.
Crumbling buildings
The SNP has been accused of “letting Scotland’s NHS crumble” as new figures show health boards face a maintenance backlog of more than £1.5 billion.
Figures obtained by Scottish Labour via Freedom of Information requests suggest it would cost a staggering £1,549,777,788 to do all required repairs across the country’s hospitals and clinics.
This includes a range of work required to bring buildings, systems and other assets up to scratch.
Travel fines
The number of penalty fares issued on the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) is set to double this year, newly released figures show.
A total of 4,472 DLR penalty fares were handed out between April and 26 November, compared with 2,571 in the year to March 2025, according to Transport for London (TfL) which said revenue protection exercises had increased by 50% in 2025.
The figures were released after a Freedom of Information request.
XL Bullies
One for a periodic follow-up FOI…
Almost 500 dogs have been seized across Devon and Cornwall since XL Bullies were banned across England and Wales, it has been have revealed.
It is currently a criminal offence to own or keep an XL Bully dog in England and Wales unless you have a valid Certificate of Exemption.
When asked, the Devon and Cornwall Constabulary revealed the force has seized 470 dogs, with 115 of them being put to sleep, since the ban was introduced in November 2023.
Councillor complaints
Reform-run Leicestershire County Council has a higher than usual number of complaints against its councillors in its first seven months of running the authority.
A response to a Freedom of Information Request has revealed Reform has received 35 complaints since May 2025. According to the Conservatives, they received four complaints in the first six months of their administration in 2021.
The Conservatives have received two complaints from members of the public over the same period.
Power failure
A fault in the electrical systems at Nottingham City Council’s headquarters meant a power cut took about a week to restore and cost the authority tens of thousands.
On March 12, a “once in a lifetime” electrical failure caused power to go out at Loxley House for days, causing an “unprecedented loss” of core IT systems and disruption to services from waste collections to Job Centre appointments.
The authority said while the emergency generator was fuelled and operational, a fault prevented power from reaching the network.
A Freedom of Information request submitted by the Local Democracy Reporting Service has found the total cost of the power cut was more than £50,000. The council’s corporate landlord services spent £43,948 on the outage, while its IT department spent £8,032.
Tour de Pricey
The cost of bringing the Tour de France to Scotland has soared after the Scottish Government revealed it will be spending up to £9.25m on the event.
Ministers have finally revealed an official figure for the first time months after controversy flared over the level of secrecy surrounding a £1.7m bill for taxpayers in Edinburgh.
Council officials had previously insisted that the government would be underwriting “all costs” over and above the council’s contribution to the world’s best-known cycling event.
And council documents obtained by The Herald via a freedom of information request suggested that the “total estimated event cost” would be £3.3m.
However the latest tally of £10.95m is more than three times higher than the one councillors were briefed on in June, when they were first asked to approve spending on the event.
Last post
If you need to get something in the post for Christmas, you need to hurry! This might be harder if there’s no postbox near you.
Locals in a Norfolk village have been encouraged to use their post box to send off last-minute Christmas cards… despite the fact they haven’t had one for months.
Villagers in Guestwick, between Aylsham and Fakenham, have been demanding answers from Royal Mail since April when their last remaining post box was stolen by thieves – the second in as many years.
A Freedom of Information request to Norfolk Police revealed that more than 50 post boxes were stolen across the county between 2019 and 2024 – an average of 10 thefts per year.
Aliens on the tube
Just to confirm, Transport for London hasn’t had “any reports of alien and/or extra-terrestrial activity on any of our services”.
The reassurance comes courtesy of a Freedom of Information request asking TfL to disclose “any reports of alien and/or extra-terrestrial activity at Tube, DLR, London Overground, Elizabeth Line and Tram locations” between January 2020 and November 2025.
This is not encouragement to use FOI to ask stupid questions! But it is an opportunity to highlight a well-maintained disclosure log (22,000 responses and counting). An up-to-date one can be a great resources for stories and FOI ideas from other people’s requests.
Image by Konstantin Finyuk on Pexels
