Restrictions on Freedom of Information restrict access to information.
That, generally, being the point.
Jump to this week’s Freedom of Information stories…
The retroactive law change in Ontario, Canada, to exempt minister’s records from scrutiny led to 48 refusals in just under two months by just one government department.
As well as laws to make release less likely, just not answering requests seems to also be a problem.
The change in law led to a total pause in work on FOIs for more than a week in May. Officials needed more time to come up with guidance on how the transparency changes would work.
Because nothing says considered change to law to address actual issue, rather than blatant attempt to avoid scrutiny by government up to questionable antics, like still trying to figure out how a new law works three weeks after you’ve forced it through.
While that pause was reversed, requests are still going unanswered.
Ontario institutions are increasingly contravening Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario (IPC) legal orders to fulfill freedom of information requests.
The problem is the IPC can’t enforce those orders when the government refuses — a power it says it’s repeatedly asked for and been denied.
Not disclosing the disclosure log
If you haven’t raided a local disclosure log for stories recently, maybe check in that it hasn’t been unpublished (probably by mistake).
Wolverhampton Council’s disclosure log is back online after almost a month after the local Express & Star paper kept getting 403 errors (‘You do not have permissions to access this page’) when trying to access it.
Do political leanings get your FOI request answered faster?
David Covucci who runs FOIAball, a newsletter reporting on college football in the USA using public record requests, has a theory:
“I have found that southern conservative states are actually better at public records than northern liberal states.
“My theory is whereas liberal-leaning states think FOIA is great in practice, they sort of love the government and don’t want people to be bashing it, whereas conservative states are like ‘Here, take these government papers. We hate this thing. It’s probably wasting our money.’”
I’m not sure I’ve seen much evidence either way in the UK. The only consistent seems to be that political enthusiasm for FOI is largely correlated with distance from power.
This week’s Freedom of Information stories…
Minimum waits
Nearly half of health boards in England are deliberately delaying care for patients by imposing minimum waiting times in an attempt to manage demand and control costs, reveals exclusive data published by The BMJ.
A total of 17 of the 36 Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) – responsible for planning health services for their local population – have introduced minimum waits of between 12 and 16 weeks for procedures including hip, knee and cataract surgery.
The BMJ sent Freedom of Information requests to all 36 ICBs in England. Some 35 boards responded (a 97% response rate).
Unregistered care
Payment records obtained from local councils reveal hundreds of businesses are running children’s homes that are not registered with Ofsted. In total, they have been paid a quarter of a billion pounds in taxpayers’ money.
Unregistered homes are subject to no routine inspections and offer no guarantees of quality or safety. Operating them is a criminal offence. But a chronic lack of legal provision means councils are increasingly turning to them as a means of housing the country’s most vulnerable children.
The Bureau of Investigative Journalism and the Guardian investigation reveals that over the last two years, more than 480 private companies have operated illegal children’s homes, receiving £250m for 1,800 placements.
Given that nearly half of local authorities in England failed to respond to the freedom of information requests, the true figures are likely to be far higher.
Warnings
The numbers of women being warned by police that their partner has a violent past has almost doubled in the last five years.
The Disclosure Scheme for Domestic Abuse Scotland – also known as Clare’s Law – allows people to find out if a new or existing partner has previously been abusive to others, called the Right to Ask.
Figures released by Police Scotland under Freedom of Information show that the number of disclosures made by them about violent partners has risen steadily since 2021.
That year there were 2,305 disclosures rising to 4,082 in 2025 – an increase of almost 80%.
Guidance for midwives
Through Freedom of Information requests, the Edinburgh North and Leith MP Tracy Gilbert uncovered serious gaps in advice for midwives and the clinical teams of which they are a part, when supporting births where a surrogacy arrangement is in place.
The MP asked all Scotland’s NHS Boards and found that only NHS Ayrshire & Arran and NHS Fife have active guidance in place for midwives in these circumstances.
Of the remaining NHS Boards:
- Five have no policy at all
- Four have a policy where the review is overdue
- One has a policy currently in draft form
- One referred to Department of Health and Social Care guidance
Dodgy shops
Co-op is warning that criminals operating on high streets are putting the prime minister’s ambition for high street regeneration at risk.
Freedom of Information requests submitted by Co-op reveal local councils in England are woefully absent in tackling these criminals and the growth of seemingly legitimate shops which service this shadow economy. The FOI’s revealed: –
- On average, councils visit just four shops a month to investigate the sale of illegal cigarettes.
- Activity varies massively by location. 66% (two thirds) of seizures and over 75% of confiscated illegal cigarettes were undertaken by just 25% of local councils
- Regional variation is even starker, with trading standards offices in Yorkshire and the Humber seizing ten times the number of cigarettes per resident, than their counterparts in London.
However, there is clear evidence that when action is taken, results can be achieved. Co-op’s FOI shows that when local councils do visit suspect shops, they find illegal cigarettes almost half (43%) of the time, confiscating an average of 8,000 illegal cigarettes per seizure.
Housing sell-off
Housing associations in England have sold 25,000 social and affordable homes to private buyers who do not live in them since 2018/19.
The pace has accelerated, with 5,250 homes sold in 2024/25, the highest annual figure on record and 89% more than two years earlier.
The Local Councils Network (LCN), which obtained the figures through Freedom of Information requests to the Regulator of Social Housing, says nearly all the properties were sold at full market price.
These sales are separate from homes bought by tenants through Right to Acquire or Right to Buy.
Starlink
Britain has spent nearly $40 million on satellite services, making it the first country outside the United States to publicly confirm its use of Starshield, the company’s military and intelligence communications service, Reuters reported on Thursday.
The British defence ministry disclosed the spending in response to a freedom of information request. The ministry said it operates about 1,000 Starshield terminals and 500 Starlink terminals. Total expenditure includes approximately £13 million ($17.6 million) on Starshield for terminals and airtime, and £16.5 million on Starlink.
Dentist appointments
One in four NHS dentistry patients have gone more than five years without an appointment, according to Scottish Labour.
The party says that figures obtained from a freedom of information request show that 1.3 million patients registered with an NHS dentist have not been in the last five years.
This includes 65,915 under-18s and is in addition to the 270,000 patients not registered with an NHS dentist at all.
Planning slowdown
According to new research from the Home Builders Federation (HBF) and Paragon Bank 9 in 10 local authority planning departments across England and Wales are understaffed, delaying planning decisions and threatening the Government’s target of 1.5 million new homes.
The Planning on Empty report is based on a Freedom of Information survey of councils across England and Wales examining staffing levels, vacancies, staff turnover and the use of agency workers during the 2025/26 financial year.
These staffing shortages are contributing directly to delays throughout the planning process. Only around 20% of major planning applications are determined within the statutory 13-week target, while recent HBF research found that Section 106 agreements take an average of 515 days to complete.
Full hospital beds
Powys Teaching Health Board figures show six of the eight hospitals covered by its response had average bed occupancy rates above 90% during 2025, amid controversy over plans which could see community beds removed from hospitals across Powys.
Llandrindod Wells and Machynlleth recorded the highest rates, with beds 98% occupied on average, while Welshpool and Newtown were both at 96%. Brecon War Memorial Hospital recorded an average occupancy rate of 94% and Llanidloes 91%. Ystradgynlais Community Hospital was at 83%, while Bronllys recorded 71%.
The figures were obtained by the Welsh Liberal Democrats through a Freedom of Information request. The party says beds at hospitals other than Brecon and Newtown could be under threat.
Empty offices
Worcestershire County Council’s former headquarters closed in June 2024 but still cost the authority an “eyewatering” £1.5 million in the last financial year.
Ongoing charges cost the council more than £1.2m between April 1, 2025 and March 31, 2026, a Freedom of Information request revealed.
More than £137,000 was spent on security, supplying the empty building with electricity cost £219,000 and the council paid £553,000 in business rates or national non-domestic rates (NNDR).
Missed bins
Missed collections for garden waste rose dramatically across South Lakeland from 886 incidents to 16,004 between 2022 and 2024, according to a Freedom of Information request.
The rise includes figures under the current Westmorland and Furness Council, established in 2023, and the former South Lakeland District Council.
Council magazine
The Labour-run Nottingham City Council recently relaunched its ‘Arrow Magazine’ – a publication containing news and information about the council’s services that it stopped sending to households after its effective declaration of bankruptcy in 2023.
A Freedom of Information request breaks down the relaunch cost by confirming that £70,000 will be used on distribution and £35,000 will be used for the printing of three magazine editions across the year – one of which has already come out.
A total of £15,000 will be spent just on the ‘content’ of the magazines and the amount of cash has been compared to smaller amounts that have been saved in recent years through council cuts – like the £79,000 saved in 2023 by cuts to opening hours being made across Nottingham’s library network.
Noisy dogs
The worst area of London for dog barking complaints has been revealed. And yes, Barking is on the list.
Freedom of Information requests gathered by puppies.co.uk show that Islington is the borough with the worst such complaints, with 3,637 reports between 2020 and June 30, 2026.
Redbridge had the second most, with 3,401 complaints, while Barking and Dagenham was third with 2,736.
Photo by Polina Zimmerman on Pexels
