Freedom of Information requests shouldn’t have been disrupted by yesterday’s elections.
Which, awkwardly, might mean FOI becomes a way to uncover poll-related disruptions to other things.
Scottish Water was due to publish annual stats on sewage dumping in rivers and seas before the end of March. But the release was delayed until after Holyrood polling day on May 7.
Emails, released following an FOI request by the Scottish Liberal Democrats, show the publicly-owned company wanted to publish the annual figures as usual but were overruled by the SNP administration.
In one email dated March 16, a Scottish Water staffer said: “We have published data before the 31st of March for the last 3 years. Would seem to be more of a story if we didn’t do it this year.”
But a member of the Scottish Government’s Water Industry Division, part of the Directorate for Energy and Climate Change, wrote on March 19: “The advice we have received is that publication of this data does not qualify as essential business and therefore its publication should be postponed until after the election.
“This is on the basis that overflows are likely to be an election campaign issue and publication could distract attention away from the campaign.”
Given the release was a regular, planned one, and the pre-election period didn’t even start till April 9, when the Scottish Parliament was dissolved, Scottish Water was right.
This week’s Freedom of Information stories…
Dine & dash
From dropping plucked-out hair into dishes to emergency nappy changes, suspected “dine and dash” incidents at restaurants and pubs are coming up with ever more elaborate and sophisticated ways to evade detection as police struggle to solve the crimes.
Catching those responsible is a problem laid bare by the police figures obtained through a freedom of information request.
Of the 2,137 reported offences, no suspect was identified in 1,320 cases. In a further 201 cases, a suspect was named, but due to reasons such as the victim not supporting prosecution, the case was dropped.
In just 65 cases (3 per cent), a person was charged, while in 45, a community resolution, a type of out-of-court disposal, was served.
Underpaid staff
The fine for Walsall Council failing to pay minimum wage to 36 members of staff has been revealed.
In April, the authority was exposed by the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) for having illegally underpaid workers a total of £21,890.67.
Along with ordering the missed wages to be repaid in full, the department has fined Walsall Council for its error.
Freedom of Information figures reveal that the authority was ordered to pay a penalty of £34,082.
The council said apprentices and lunchtime supervisors at four schools across the borough were affected by the issue.
No pension
Just seven disgraced police officers have been stripped of their taxpayer-funded pensions in the past decade – despite scores of misconduct exits, it has emerged.
The Scottish Police Authority (SPA) said the sanction was imposed on three officers in 2017, with one case recorded in each year from 2022 to 2025, according to data released under Freedom of Information.
They confirmed the officers were convicted of offences including attempting to defeat the ends of justice, sexual assault, stalking and sending indecent communications.
Renting information
New Freedom of Information data obtained by Landlord Studio indicates limited engagement with a key compliance document ahead of a deadline under the Renters’ Rights Act.
Figures released by the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government show that the mandatory information sheet landlords must provide to tenants was downloaded 153,000 times in the four weeks following publication.
This compares with an estimated 2.3 million private landlords in England who are required to serve the document by 31 May 2026 or face penalties of up to £7,000 per tenancy.
Second homes
A Freedom of Information (FOI) request to Cornwall Council has revealed how much council tax it has raised from the 100% premium on second homes following its introduction a year ago.
The policy means second-home owners are now liable to pay double the standard rate of council tax (a 200% charge in total) on their properties.
According to the data, Cornwall has just under 289,000 dwellings as a whole, with 10,740 of those classed as second homes.
As of March 7, 2026 the total amount of additional revenue raised from the premium element of the second homes premium was £24,725,682.05.
Busy councillors
Figures released under the Freedom of Information Act show how hard your local Walsall councillors have worked for you.
Every resident in Walsall has three ward councillors who act as a bridge between them and Walsall Council. As councillors it is their duty to raise enquiries for matters such as antisocial behaviour, issues with roads, waste management and more.
Freedom of Information figures have revealed the number of enquiries submitted by each member between February 2025 and February 2026.
Coming in at number one is Councillor Simran Cheema, Willenhall South ward, with 492 enquiries raised. The second highest performing member was Councillor Suky Samra in the Streetly ward with 289 enquiries raised.
Use of Welsh
Ahead of the Senedd election, a Welsh language campaign group called on candidates to commit to learning and using Welsh if they were elected.
Through a Freedom of Information request, Cymdeithas Yr Iath gathered detailed figures on Members’ use of Welsh in their parliamentary work during 2024/25. According to the figures: 55% of Members of the Senedd did not use any Welsh at all when contributing.
Welsh-language contributions by leaders of political parties ranged from 32% to 0%, the use of Welsh by party spokespeople on the Senedd floor ranged from 51% to 11%, while the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and the Welsh Language contributed 30% in Welsh.
Waiting days
A growing NHS crisis has been laid bare after figures revealed some patients are enduring days-long waits in A&E, with one case stretching beyond five days.
New data obtained through a Freedom of Information request by the Liberal Democrats indicates that the average hospital trust is now seeing nearly 3,000 patients wait more than 24 hours in A&E each year.
At Royal Devon University Healthcare Trust, waiting times have reached particularly high levels. The longest recorded wait in 2025 stood at 122 hours, while more than 310 patients waited over 24 hours in A&E over a 12-month period.
Work injuries
Dog bites, slips and being hit with objects have led to more than two dozen bin collectors being injured at work across Liverpool in the last four years.
New data revealed to the ECHO has uncovered just how many waste operatives have been hurt while collecting our rubbish.
A freedom of information request showed that 37 collectors were hurt between 2022 and 2025 during their working role across the city.
Missed tax deadlines
Self-employed workers on lower incomes are considerably more likely to miss the self-assessment deadline than their higher-earning counterparts, according to data from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC).
In 2023-24, roughly 5.9% of below basic rate tax self-employed filers submitted their returns after the 31 January deadline, compared with 3.1% of basic rate taxpayers, 2.7% of higher rate taxpayers and 2.6% of those paying additional rate tax, based on calculations from PensionBee.
The pension provider obtained these figures from HMRC following a freedom of information (FOI) request. In total, approximately 180,000 self-employed filers were late in 2023-24, of whom around 94% were below basic or basic rate taxpayers.
Van thefts
Van thefts across the UK fell by 16% from 2024 to 2025, with the frequency of incidents slowing from one every 44 minutes in 2024 to every 52 minutes in 2025, according to the latest DVLA data obtained via a Freedom of Information request.
Ford accounted for the highest volume of thefts during the two-year period of 2024 and 2025, with over 11,700 thefts recorded. This represents 53% of all recorded van thefts – almost four times the total of the second most targeted make, Mercedes-Benz (2,935).
However, this volume likely reflects Ford’s strong market presence. With 31,936 new registrations in 2025 (38% market share)[1], the prevalence of Ford vans in theft data is indicative of the high volume on UK roads and subsequent exposure to risk.
Land sale
Middlesbrough Council netted more than £10m from a land sale in the south of the town. A freedom of information request has revealed that previously council-owned Nunthorpe Grange Farm land, sandwiched between Guisborough Road and the A1043, was sold for £10.8m in December 2024.
In September 2024, it was reported that top councillors had approved the so-called ‘private treaty’ sale of land at Nunthorpe intended for approximately 160 new homes and a care home.
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