When making a Freedom of Information request, make sure you know what you’re asking for.
Jump to this week’s FOI stories…
And try to make sure the FOI officer on the other end also knows what you’re asking for. And hope that the pair of you don’t end up at total cross-purposes.
Or you’re likely to end up with every 25th person in the Home Counties involved in a road accident.
This one is almost an FOI request that doesn’t need an FOI request. Which also makes it possible to check the numbers.
The number of crashes on Wiltshire’s roads has increased in recent years – and the most common causes have been revealed. New data shows a five per cent rise in road traffic collisions across the county, with 7,415 accidents recorded between 2023 and 2025. A Freedom of Information request to Wiltshire Police, submitted by Accident Claims Advice, revealed that the most common cause of these incidents was “failure to look properly” by drivers, riders, or pedestrians.
The clue that the data in this story might not be that reliable is 69,539 collisions in Thames Valley between 2023 and 2025. That’s 64 road accidents a day. Or one for every 27 people aged 17 and over.
What data do you want? What data did they send?
Pretty detailed police data on road traffic collisions is regularly published. And it doesn’t match the numbers in this story.
Only half of 2025 data has been published but it and the 2023 and 2024 data suggest about 1,300 road traffic collisions a year in Wiltshire. Which is about half the numbers Accident Claims Advice have.
So what’s going on? Helpfully, the FOI response is on Wiltshire Police’s disclosure log.
The question does ask “How many road traffic accidents were reported during the last three years?”. But then it asks for it broken down by the age group of the person at fault. Then talks about underage drivers (who are under 16, for reasons?!).
This really should have been clarified at this point.
Instead the FOI officer pressed on. It does say the request should have been refused due to Section 12 (that’s not the reason most of it should have been refused). And says for Q2, the force doesn’t record the ‘at fault’ person for statistical purposes in relation to the most common causes of traffic accidents.
This didn’t ring any alarm bells about the response to Q1 (sent as a gesture as goodwill) and what the figures might refer to (a count of drivers not collisions).
You can get these numbers for 2023 and 2024 from the open data. If you don’t want to dig through the open data files, there’s a tool to filter the data.
Honestly, this one should have been a Section 21/Section 22 refusal for everyone’s sake. It would have saved about 18 hours of work (apparently). And getting the data themselves from the online tool or the data files might have cleared up what data Accident Claims Advice was actually looking at.
Latest FOI Figures
The latest FOI figures for central government are out. And nearly 100,000 requests were made to those departments and bodies last year.
The statistics show 94,526 FOI requests were received in 2025, up from 83,041 in 2024. The 14% year on year increase is the biggest annual rise since the Act was introduced. The number of requests is now more than double the 44,195 made in 2020.
More requests were answered in time. The knock-on impact of that seems to be a higher proportion of requests both answered in full (up from 29% to 36%) and withheld in full (up from 30% to 35%). That’s mostly because the proportion of requests sitting unanswered dropped from 26% to 8%.
And in long-running Freedom of Information stories…
FOI enforcement doesn’t stop in the pre-election period.
The Scottish Government missed deadlines to release information relating to one of the FOIs about an investigation into Nicola Sturgeon’s conduct in relation to complaints about her her predecessor Alex Salmond.
The Scottish Information Commissioner launched contempt of court proceedings over the delays. The case is apparently set to be heard next Wednesday (May 6), the day before the Scottish Parliament elections.
FOI changes that will make accessing information more difficult in Ontario have become law. But a campaign group is planning to launch a legal challenge.
Democracy Watch, a non-profit citizen group based in Ottawa, tried and failed to obtain an injunction last week before the bill received Royal Assent.
The group is now planning to file a constitutional challenge arguing the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled in a few different cases that voters have a right to disclosure of government information that voters need to have meaningful debate about public issues. It’s also questioning whether the government can pass retroactive laws to overturn court decisions directed at members of cabinet.
This week’s Freedom of Information stories…
Intimate images
Five years ago, Cosmopolitan UK partnered with the domestic abuse charity Refuge on ‘The Naked Threat’ campaign, a tireless push to make threats to share intimate images illegal. Their efforts resulted in a monumental victory: the ‘threat to share’ offence was officially written into the Domestic Abuse Act of 2021.
But on the fifth anniversary of that landmark legislation, alarming new data reveals a broken justice system for women.
Freedom of Information requests submitted by Refuge to 43 police forces across England and Wales (and to which 27 responded) paint a bleak picture. Between July 2021 and February 2026, an overwhelming 21,905 intimate image abuse offences were recorded. Yet, a shocking 95.2% of these cases resulted in zero accountability, with only 4.8% (1,047) of perpetrators actually charged or summonsed.
Doctor cover
Almost half of hospital trusts have been asking non-doctors to fill in on medical rotas, according to FoI (Freedom of Information) requests lodged by the BMA.
The association had responses from 85 of 202 trusts in the UK, with 41 (48 per cent) confirming they permit AP (advanced practitioners) to cover doctors’ rota gaps.
APs are healthcare professionals with backgrounds including nursing, paramedic, physiotherapy and pharmacy. While many are experienced in their base profession, working on medical roles is beyond their scope of practice.
Missed follow-ups
More than 2,000 psychiatric patients across Scotland have waited longer than two weeks for follow-up care after being discharged from hospital, according to new figures obtained through freedom of information requests.
The data, compiled by the Scottish Liberal Democrats, suggests that a key mental health standard, intended to ensure patients are contacted within seven days of leaving inpatient care, is being routinely missed.
Costly kennels
Prosecutors spent nearly half a million pounds in two years looking after 68 danger XL bullies. Figures obtained by the Sunday Mail show the number of banned breed dogs involved in live criminal court cases which have been cared for in police kennels since new laws came into force.
Figures obtained via a freedom of information request show Crown Office officials spent £203,824 between February 2024 and the end of March last year, with an additional £279,028 for XL bully kennelling from April 1 last year to March 31. Figures do not include the number of XL bullies kept in police kennels that are stray, abandoned or whose owner can’t be established.
Dog attacks
Dog attacks have nearly doubled since the pandemic with more than three occurring an hour on our streets and in our homes.
In 2025 alone, new data obtained by the Mirror reveals, at least 29,400 out-of-control dog attacks causing injury offences were recorded by police, equivalent to 81 a day, or 3.4 every hour. The massive number is a significant five percent increase on the already high number of attacks recorded in 2024 – the year violent XL Bully dogs were banned – when police logged 28,000 attacks.
The figures show an increase in the number of dog attacks since 2020, when 16,040 were recorded, up to 19,762 in 2021, 21,700 in 2022, and 27,000 in 2023. They have been released thanks to exclusive Mirror Freedom of Information requests made to every police force in the country.
Long waits
As of the end of March 2026, 1,304 women were awaiting a gynaecological surgical procedure with NHS Tayside – with some having waited around three years or longer.
And 842 women were awaiting an urgent gynaecology outpatient appointment and face the longest wait of any NHS Tayside specialty for an outpatient appointment.
The figures were released to the Perthshire Advertiser following a Freedom of Information request; the health board said the long waits are due to demand increasing “significantly” over the past five years.
Worst parkers
Cumberland Council has revealed details about its worst parking offenders.
A Freedom of Information request has shown the area’s worst offender for parking tickets in the 2025 calendar year, and a long-standing, persistent evader who still owes thousands of pounds in fines.
A Vauxhall received 43 Penalty Charge Notices (PCNs) in 2025, mainly on Station Street in Cockermouth, fines totalling £2,150.
Banned
Feeding the birds, blackberry foraging and picking up stones are among everyday activities banned by town halls accused of ‘abusing’ sweeping powers.
A report has found that Public Spaces Protection Orders (PSPOs) – originally designed to tackle serious anti-social behaviour – are being used to ‘criminalise’ a wide range of everyday activities.
Researchers found 91 per cent of 297 councils which responded to Freedom of Information requests now have at least one PSPO in place.
Dump for sale
King Charles’s private estate tried to sell land that was contaminated with a large rotting illegal waste dump to a local authority, it has emerged.
In January, a 25,000-ton site described as the UK’s “worst illegal waste dump” in Bickershaw, Wigan, was revealed to be largely on land owned by the Duchy of Lancaster, the King’s extensive private portfolio of properties and estates.
Previously, the Duchy said it had offered to transfer the land to Wigan Council in July last year.
However, a Freedom of Information Request by Channel 4 News found that the Duchy tried to sell the site to the local authority at full market price.
Compensation
South Ayrshire Council has paid over £42,000 in compensation to one teacher in the last five years following assault claims, new data has revealed.
A response to a Freedom of Information request by the Advertiser shows that a total of £42,500 has been awarded to one education staff member for an “alleged assault by a pupil”.
The local authority was asked about the number of claims made by teachers or teaching assistants for injuries sustained in schools or on school trips due to pupil violence.
Road closure
A town council has been warned over an “illegal” and “unauthorised” closure of its high street for a winter festival.
Last year Beaumaris cancelled its Victorian Christmas. The organising committee – made up of volunteers – blamed rising costs, falling revenue and capacity issues.
But later on in the year Beaumaris Town Council announced it was staging “Winterfest”. The two day event took place at the end of November with an ice rink, Christmas market and parade. This included a road closure to allow the event to happen.
However a Freedom of Information request has revealed that the Highway Authority (Anglesey Council) did not grant permission for the event organisers to close any roads. It said the authority “has written to Beaumaris Town Council to formally express its concern that Castle Street was obstructed / closed illegally in order to host the Winterfest Parade 2025”.
Living wages
At least twelve Oxford colleges were not paying all staff the Oxford Living Wage (OLW) as of their most recent financial year, Cherwell can reveal.
Balliol, Brasenose, Harris Manchester, Oriel, Regent’s Park, St Anne’s, St Catherine’s, St Edmund Hall, St Hilda’s, St Peter’s, Trinity, and Wolfson all paid their lowest-earning employees less than £13.16 per hour, the OLW set for 2025-26. Reuben has not yet responded to Cherwell’s Freedom of Information request.
Paying with Paddington
Sir David Attenborough, Paddington Bear and Sir Winston Churchill have emerged among the most popular public suggestions for new banknote designs.
The suggestions were revealed as part of a freedom of information request, which was submitted after the new wildlife theme announced by the Bank of England was criticised by Reform UK leader Nigel Farage as being “woke”.
Sir Winston, who currently features on the £5 note, was the fourth most commonly suggested idea.
Meanwhile, Sir David, the esteemed broadcaster and environmental advocate, who is due to celebrate his 100th birthday next month, also featured prominently among the top submissions.
More than 1,000 ideas were related to the wildlife theme, making it the most popular topic.
Image by Sedanur Kunuk on Pexels
