Apparently celebrating Sunshine Week with actual sunshine and new attempts to roll back Freedom of Information laws.
Jump to this week’s FOI stories…
It seems like when one Government bid to make getting information about what they’re up to fails, two more pop up.
The UK Government is apparently considering cutting the cost limit for dealing with requests. Its complaint seems to be that requests have rocketed and budgets are under pressure.
This’ll be the Labour Party that was happy to use FOI to get information for its campaigns in the run-up to the last election.
From July to September 2025, central government received 24,216 FOI requests, the largest number of FOI requests received in a quarter since records began. Just over half (54%) were fully or partially refused. Of those fully refused, 43% were refused on cost grounds.
Currently, staff time for dealing with FOI requests is charged at a flat rate of £25 an hour, and the limit is per request is set at £600 for central government (or 24 hours) and £450 for other public bodies (or 18 hours).
According to the FT, the Cabinet Office does not publish estimates of the annual cost of the FOI system, but it is thought to run into tens of millions of pounds.
The budget available for central government’s ‘day-to-day’ spending was £517.9 billion for 2025/26. Tens of millions on FOI is probably not the actual issue.
FOI being a time-consuming burden that takes up resources that could be used elsewhere is a regular whinge from public bodies.
Bedford Council is the latest. Apparently FOIs (and subject access requests) are increasing and getting more complex. The council is blaming people using AI tools like ChatGPT.
We have already looked at all of these issues (so looking forward to doing it again). The House of Commons Justice Committee’s Post-legislative scrutiny of the FOI Act back in 2012 and broadly concluded the benefits outweigh the burdens. It wasn’t very convinced on suggestions for changing the cost limits.
Alex Parsons at MySociety points out cutting the time limits is unlikely to reduce costs. The number of requests is unlikely to reduce and while more can be refused, they’ll be more likely to attract complaints about the precision of the time estimate.
How to actually cut costs
Reducing complaints is a real cost saver (so any changes to the FOI Act that’s likely to increase those is unlikely to be helpful).
The number of internal review requests to central government has stayed pretty consistent in recent years (around 3,000 a year), even as numbers of refused requests has grown. But they’re slightly less likely to be upheld in full (73% in 2024, trending down from 81% in 2019).
Complaints to the ICO are also up. A third of fully or partially upheld internal reviews led to further complaints in 2024, with a big jump since 2022.
Not spending a load of money on lawyers to fight complaints would also be a good idea. A new investigation by Democracy for Sale has found that government departments spent over £1 million on legal fees to fight Freedom of Information requests in 2024 and 2025.
Employing experienced FOI officers that senior staff will listen to helps. Research by the Constitution Unit found estimates of time taken to reply to FOIs ranging from two hours to 50. The first involved an experienced person who could quickly make decisions, the other a junior staff member who had to spend time going through multiple layers of management.
Just releasing the information people keep asking for also works. Moray Council reckons it can save 40 hours of officer time a year with a new system for publishing the details of elected members’ expenses online rather than answering FOIs.
If arguing it costs too much fails…
If any Chinese spies have any tips on getting FOI requests answered in full in a timely manner they want to share, that’d be great.
The second argument the Government appears to be making for why it needs to make changes to the FOI Act is its worried China is exploiting FOI laws to gather UK security data.
The government thinks its spotted a pattern of requests relating to the UK’s defence and national security, raising suspicions that Beijing may be behind a significant proportion of them. Individual requests could be pieced together to reveal sensitive information, a concept known as the “mosaic effect” in intelligence circles.
Broadly this argument requires everyone involved to be an idiot (possible, see the US Government).
The UK Government would need to be really bad at spotting requests that might reveal sensitive information (individually or in conjunction with other releases). It then has to be incapable of using the exemptions already in the FOI Act to not release that information (because they’re right there already, as Tim Turner points out).
It needs Chinese intelligence agencies to decide an efficient way to get information is by using a system that is notoriously slow and likely to lead to not getting the information you asked for. And the ICO is not big on overturning refusals based on defence, security and international affairs.
As George Greenwood points out, there’s probably more effective ways to gain access and influence.
And in Canada
The government is planning to change FOI laws in Ontario to stop the release of any messages involving ministers and staff. The move, which would also cover any in-progress requests, could also keep the premier’s cellphone records permanently secret.
It’ll probably come as absolutely no surprise that there’s an ongoing FOI battle to get access to Premier Doug Ford’s cellphone records, after suggestions he was using his personal phone to conduct government business.
Ford has offered various reasons for the changes, saying they’re necessary to preserve the cabinet’s confidential discussions, and to protect constituents’ “personal” or “health” information.
He’s also thrown in a potential threat from China for good measure (it’s a very fashionable claim, the Australian Government was also having vague unverifiable problems with it too).
The Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario has pointed out the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA) already prevents the release of personal information, subject to limited exceptions, and specifically doesn’t allow the disclosure of health information. It also has exemptions relating to national security.
Be careful what you wish for
Over the other side of Canada, the government in British Columbia is also trying to make changes to its FOI laws.
What’s interesting there is that having introduced a $10 fee to make requests in November 2021, it might have cut numbers, but it hasn’t t actually reduced the FOI work.
Requests to the BC government have fallen 44% over the past five years. They were down from 8,347 in 2020/21 (the last full year before fees were introduced) to 4,691 in 2024/25.
In 2024/25, 85% of requests were answered within the deadline, barely a change from 86% in 2020/21. Requests have got more involved – the average number of pages processed per FOI request was 366 in 2024/25, more than double the 159 in 2020/21.
BC’s information and privacy commissioner Michael Harvey says his office is seeing a sharp increase in FOI and privacy complaints and reviews as the remaining request have become more broad and complex.
He said: “They will seek ‘any and all’ records, no matter how many records they are, they won’t narrow their requests, and many of them, a small number, but some of them are becoming very combative with public bodies, even with our own offices.”
“This has led public bodies to feel like they’re under siege.”
This week’s FOI stories…
Street crime
One of Birmingham’s busiest nightlife spots was marred by rape, kidnap, robbery and assaults in a single month, exclusive new data can reveal.
Broad Street, dubbed the city’s ‘Golden Mile’, is known for its party atmosphere, bars and clubs, but fresh police stats reveal a darker side to the strip.
Freedom of Information data requested by BirminghamLive detailed over 100 crimes reported to West Midlands Police from the well-known street.
Some of the most serious offences include rape of a male, rape of a female, threats to kill, sexual assault on a female aged 13 or over, kidnapping and robbery.
Deaths of homeless people
Eight homeless people in Glasgow died just weeks into 2026, new figures have revealed.
The stats, obtained through a Freedom of Information Request, show that eight people died in homeless accommodation within the first seven weeks of the year. Of these, five died in temporary accommodation, and the following three passed away in hotels.
Police injuries
New figures released to Belfast Live by the PSNI under a Freedom of Information request shows the number of injured at work years between January 1 2021 and Dec 31 2025.
The number of PSNI officers who were injured in the line of duty in the last five years stands at 3,778 with 2,039 sustaining injuries as the result of an assault.
More than 2,000 sustained injuries including bites, fractures, bruises, headaches, cuts and abrasions.
Police stress
West Midlands Police (WMP) officer absences due to stress have hiked over 45 per cent in four years, a Freedom of Information Request has revealed.
Between 2022 and 2025, the number of days off due to stress in the police force has increased from 15,918 days in 2022 to a total of 23,150 days in 2025.
This is a leap of 45.4 per cent, with figures leading up to March 11 of this year highlighting within just under three and a half months a total of 4,257 days have been taken off by WMP officers due to stress.
Flag removal
Cumberland Council spent almost £10,000 taking down ‘unauthorised flags’ in 2025.
A Freedom of Information request has revealed that Cumberland Council spent £9,262.25 removing unauthorised flags in the financial year 2025/26 whilst there were no costs in the previous two financial years.
The council said it supported residents’ right to fly flags on their property but unauthorised flags, posters, banners etc. attached to lampposts, roundabouts and barriers were removed “to avoid causing distractions to road users and damaging infrastructure”.
Online sales
Online selling websites such as Ebay, Vinted and Airbnb reported 4million users’ earnings to HM Revenue & Customs last year, under new rules which are being referred to as a potential ‘goldmine’ for the taxman.
The taxman received reports on the income of four million online sellers in 2025, a Freedom of Information request by tax and accounting firm BDO reveals.
This is a 272 per cent rise on the 1.5million seller reports it received in 2024.
Long A&E waits
More than 12,500 people waited in excess of 24 hours at A&E departments last year, the Scottish Liberal Democrats have claimed.
The FOI also found 41,828 people waited longer than 24 hours at A&Es between 2015 and 2025.
Busy speed cameras
More than 237,000 people were reported for speeding on the roads of Devon and Cornwall in 2025, which marks a steep rise.
A Freedom of Information (FoI) request by the BBC revealed the number of Notices of Intended Prosecution issued by the police trebled between 2020 and 2025.
The most prolific speed camera in the force area is on the A383 Ashburton Road in Newton Abbot, Devon – it caught 10,134 motorists last year.
Empty homes
More than 15,000 homes have sat empty in Ipswich in the last five years a freedom of information (FOI) request has revealed.
The request revealed that thousands of homes across each Ipswich ward have been empty since 2020.
This follows news that Ipswich Borough Council brought 14 long-term empty homes back into use during 2025.
Lost property
Transport for London (TfL) said a total of 166,309 items were found on its buses in the year to December 2025, according to data released following a Freedom of Information request submitted by LondonNow.
Travelcards topped the list, with 28,073 left behind across the network. General miscellaneous items made up the second most common category of items, totalling 20,387.
Wallets, purses and cash were close behind with 20,082 items found. Telephones were another frequently left item, with 15,570 discovered on board.
Tool thefts
New figures have revealed how many tool thefts have been reported in Sussex since 2021.
Freedom of Information data obtained by 2580 Group shows that 632 tool thefts were reported to Sussex Police between January 2021 and December 2025.
Cancelled
Of the 17 events cancelled by councils due to costs, 10 were in Tower Hamlets, with two each in the boroughs of Greenwich, Havering and Lewisham. Hounslow’s Rhythm and Sound 2025 music festival was also cancelled.
The figures were released following a Freedom of Information Act (FOI) request by BBC London to the capital’s 32 councils.
Events cancelled included the Blackheath Fireworks Display in Lewisham, Sparkle in the Park in Greenwich and the Havering Show in Hornchurch. Havering Council also cancelled a Christmas lights switch on.
Lynx on the loose
When your big cats FOI request might actually involve real big cats, but you’re still not getting any information.
Earlier this year the Strathy asked for copies of Police Scotland investigation papers in connection with the release of four lynx into the wild by Kingussie in January last year.
However, no information has been forthcoming beyond the fact that the matter was “subject to a live police enquiry”, with a refusal on the grounds that disclosure might prejudice the investigation.
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