What does the new Prime Minister think about Freedom of Information?
Jump to this week’s FOI stories…
Given the Government seemed to be toying with introducing some FOI restrictions, such as trying to cut the cost limit, new people at the top could be key in what happens to access to information.
Martin Rosenbaum looks at Andy Burnham’s previous FOI record, which is more enthusiastic when he’s the one sending the requests, less so when on the receiving end.
The floated FOI restrictions seem to have been abandoned for now. And Martin points out, likely to attract bad publicity the new team would probably want to avoid if they were brought back.
Better news may be Louise Haigh as Minister for the Cabinet Office, where responsibility for Freedom of Information policy sits. She has previously been much more enthusiastic about FOI, including campaigning for it to be extended to private contractors delivering public services.
Although that was while in opposition…
A lack of Freedom of Information answers is the story
Is the PotholePro the saviour of Britain’s broken roads?
It’s been touted as capable of repairing potholes “in just eight minutes”. But not all councils have been convinced it’s more effective than other ways of carrying out repairs.
Judging it’s performance versus other types of repairs isn’t helped if there’s no data.
Coventry Council bought the JCB machine in 2022 for £165,000. In January 2023, it said the machine had already repaired 562 miles of road and had filled five times as many potholes in a year as in the previous year.
A local resident wanted to find out how it’s been doing since and submitted freedom of information requests asking for the performance data, the KPIs, repair times, repeat repair rates, and any assessments comparing before and after the machine was introduced.
The council replied that it didn’t hold the information.
Other figures put the cost of pothole repairs in Coventry at an average £633.90 per pothole, the third highest cost in the country. Which might suggest the PotholePro is either not much help or an expensive way to achieve the same thing other councils are doing.
Comparisons between council spending based on FOIs can be a problem if its not clear what each council is counting in their total. Asking what’s included in the calculation might help.
But if public bodies don’t keep records, neither they, or anyone else, can evaluate how things are going.
This week’s Freedom of Information stories…
Training not offered
Black and Asian doctors in the UK are up to 30 times less likely to be offered medical training posts in some specialties than white candidates, shows data published exclusively by The BMJ.
The findings – based on 2024 NHS England (NHSE) data via a Freedom of Information request – highlight the ongoing barriers that applicants from ethnic minorities face when applying for jobs in medicine.
Across all specialties, Black doctors are four times less likely to be offered a training place than white applicants, official NHSE figures show.
But in some specialties the gap is much wider. The starkest example was core training 1 (CT1) in anaesthetics. Black applicants for CT1 in this speciality stood less than 1 in a 100 chance of being offered a place in 2024 – and were 30 times less likely to be offered a place than white counterparts. Only 10 of 1,158 Black applicants received an offer, compared with 7% of Asian applicants (111 of 1,696) and a third of white doctors (556 of 1,668).
Anti-social behaviour
Unruly louts are carrying weapons, making racist remarks and attacking staff on Inverclyde’s railway lines, shocking new figures reveal.
Statistics released by ScotRail to the Telegraph under freedom of information laws show that more than 1,200 anti-social behaviour incidents have occurred on local lines in the last five years.
In those five years, station and train staff have been subjected to verbal or physical attacks on more than 150 occasions. Trespassing was the most common type of incident recorded on local lines, with 295 incidents reported since 2022.
A total of 221 incident categorised as ‘disturbances’ took place on trains, while a further 182 instances of anti-social behaviour happened at stations.
Council tax owed
East Lothian Council is chasing more than £860,000 in unpaid council tax from its own employees, with nearly a quarter of it arrears from last year alone.
A Freedom of Information request has revealed that council workers owe £189,661 in unpaid council tax for last year despite the fact they could face disciplinary action for failing to meet the payments.
And it reveals that outstanding amounts still being chased over the last decade stand at £860,000 with more than £11,500 outstanding from 2015/16.
The council said that the figures were based on people being identified as council workers at the time the report was put together but says some employees could have built up arrears before they joined the local authority.
Dental fines
Each year, hundreds of thousands of people receive penalty charge notices for wrongly claiming free dental treatment.
A freedom of information request by MSE revealed that in 2024/2025, a staggering 211,968 PCNs were issued for this very issue – nearly double the figure from the previous year. Each fine can amount to as much as £100, or even more should payment be delayed, as the NHS can begin adding surcharges after a set number of days.
Suspended
Hundreds of public sector workers in Scotland were suspended on full pay last year, new figures reveal.
At least 424 public sector workers were suspended with full pay in 2025/26. These included 239 council staff, as well 100 employees from Scottish
Some of those suspended were on six-figure salaries, including one NHS Borders staff member who earns £115,000.
The figures were revealed following a freedom of information (FOI) request by the Scottish Conservatives.
Confusing roads
According to several studies, Hanger Lane is repeatedly regarded as the most stressful junction in the country. (Combine it with a weekend trip to Wembley IKEA for the full experience!)
Transport for London has been made aware of concerns regarding the gyratory.
Freedom of Information documents revealed complaints regarding poor lane guidance, inadequate road markings, and insufficient signage, which have resulted in unfamiliar drivers ending up in the wrong lane.
Goose clean-up
Chesham Town Council has revealed that several attempts to reduce the amount of goose droppings in Lowndes Park have been unsuccessful, according to information released under the Freedom of Information Act.
The council said it has been working with volunteers to transplant reeds into the park’s pond and has replaced signs advising visitors on appropriate food for waterfowl in an effort to manage the resident Canada goose population.
However, officials acknowledged that a number of measures tried more than three years ago failed to solve the problem.
These included creating a hedge to block sight lines between the pond and nearby lawns, transplanting reeds around the pond margins, and using scare tactics to deter the birds. The council said the geese had “quickly learnt to ignore” attempts to scare them away.
Photo by Altaf Shah on Pexels
