A sort of Freedom of Information win for the Scottish Government this week.
Jump to this week’s Freedom of Information stories…
But it wasn’t all bad news for the Scottish Information Commissioner in the latest round of the pair’s long-running battle.
The Scottish Government had appealed a decision by the Scottish Information Commissioner ordering it to release some more information from the requested documents relating to the investigation into whether Nicola Sturgeon breached the ministerial code in relation to complaints about her predecessor Alex Salmond.
The Scottish Government said publication would risk contempt of court as there would be a “realistic prospect” of identifying some of the nine women who accused Mr Salmond of harassment.
The Scottish Information Commissioner had accepted some passages in the information requested required redaction to protect anonymity. But had concluded the rest could be released. So the Scottish Government appealed the decision to the Court of Session.
The Scottish Government had argued it’s not the Scottish Information Commissioner’s job to decide if something is contemptuous or not. And that he’d got that decision wrong anyway.
What did the Court of Session think?
The court didn’t accept that the Commissioner doesn’t have the power to make that decision. Its judgement said the 2002 FOI Act (Scotland) clearly imposes a responsibility on the Commissioner to reach his own independent view on the question of whether a public authority has dealt with an information request in accordance with the Act.
It added: “There is nothing to suggest that the Commissioner must in some way defer to the view of the authority on what the 2002 Act requires it to do in response to an application.”
But the court did find in this case, the Commissioner hadn’t made the right decision. He hadn’t given enough weight to previous case law on the risks of ‘jigsaw identification’.
While the Commissioner had accepted disclosure would permit assumptions to be made about the identities of one or more complainers, he’d said it wouldn’t allow people to confirm or refute those assumptions.
The court said that was too high a bar. It said there was “no element of probability involved” beyond the requirement for a real or substantial risk of identification. And that risk didn’t have to come from the public generally, it could come from a section of the public, including the community in which a complainer lives or works.
Given that, the court backed the Scottish Government’s view that the information shouldn’t be released.
Does Joe Lycett really know his way around an FOI
He claimed he knew what he was doing. So what’s FOI expert Martin Rosenbaum’s opinion?
Having tracked down a likely candidate for Joe’s request on Birmingham Council’s disclosure log (see, another great reason to have one), Martin says it’s “admirably specific, concise and clear”.
However, while it’s a good request for getting the parking income for specific streets, Martin points out that it struggles to fulfill Joe’s intended reason for making the request.
The request doesn’t ask about identifying who is parking on the streets near the hospital for the hospital or just more generally. And that’s information that’s unlikely to be held, although there may be other information, like complaints and appeals, that could shed more light on the situation.
More transparency
Among other things, this week’s elections in the USA might be good for Freedom of Information. A combination of FOIA departments being shrunk or disbanded and requests being ignored has made getting information harder.
In the year to September 30, 2025, just 47% of FOIA requests to federal agencies were granted in part or in full, the lowest rate since 2010. As requests have increased, federal agencies have also accumulated a backlog and waiting times have increased.
But on Tuesday (November 3), Massachusetts voted to open up their governor’s office and state legislature to public records requests. The change will take effect in January.
Which will leave Michigan as the only state still shielding both from FOIA. Unless, Michigan Governor-elect Jocelyn Benson sticks to her pledge to make the governor’s office open to public records requests from day one of her administration.
There’s a bit of scepticism. When she first ran to lead the state in 2018, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer made the same promise. She hasn’t opened her office to record requests. Lisa McGraw, public policy manager for the Michigan Press Association, joked she could fill a thick scrapbook with politicians making similar transparency pledges.
But she noted Benson’s running mate, Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks, D-Grand Rapids, has championed legislation to expand FOIA. And Benson has also talked about being subject to FOIA through her career and taking steps, like an online portal of requests, to make expand access.
This week’s Freedom of Information stories…
Data centre concerns
South Scotland Green MSP Laura Moodie has demanded answers over proposed data centres in the Scottish Borders after it emerged that the Scottish Government was warned months ago that hyperscale data centres could drive up household energy bills, threaten water supplies and deliver little benefit to local communities.
Documents obtained through Freedom of Information reveal that the Scottish Government’s own Deputy Director for Domestic Climate Change raised serious concerns about the impact of data centres in March this year, as ministers were working to attract billions of pounds of investment into the sector.
In an internal email, the senior official warned of a serious risk to the just transition, particularly given the prevalence of fuel poverty in Scotland, and called for a clear system to protect residents from higher electricity prices and power shortages as part of any agreement to host a data centre.
No student placements
Senior medical school leaders believed it was “not safe nor appropriate” to send students to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King’s Lynn (QEH) and warned of an “ongoing and expanding vacuum of leadership”, newly released documents show.
Emails obtained under the Freedom of Information Act (FOI) also reveal that NHS England identified concerns about racism and misogyny within surgical training.
Ambulance overtime
Welsh Ambulance Service staff have worked almost 3.9 million hours of paid overtime at a cost of more than £109 million over the past nine-and-a-half years, according to figures released by the Welsh Conservatives.
The figures, which the party says were obtained through freedom of information, cover the period from April 2017 to September 2026. A table supplied to The Herald records 3,896,860 overtime hours and expenditure of £109,169,547.
Maternity care
A probe into the full restoration of maternity services at Dr Gray’s Hospital has revealed the Scottish Government knew in July it was going to miss its 2026 target – three months before it was publicly announced.
Maternity services at the Elgin hospital were downgraded to a midwife-led service in 2018 due to a severe shortage of consultants. The move has resulted in about 80% of Moray mothers having to give birth outside of the region, mainly in Aberdeen.
Data obtained through a Freedom of Information (FOI) request revealed that from October 2025 to September 2026, a total of 31 women were transferred from Dr Gray’s to Aberdeen or Raigmore in Inverness during labour.
Sex offenders
The number of registered sex offenders living in Worcester has been revealed.
264 residents in the city are currently on the Sex Offenders Register, according to a freedom of information request published by West Mercia Police.
This represents approximately 0.25 per cent of the city’s population, or 1 in every 392 people.
Genetic information
Three of England’s seven NHS Genomics Laboratory Hubs were not routinely sharing genetic variant information with ClinVar – a public database used to help interpret genetic test results – according to a BMJ investigation.
The findings raise concerns about delays and gaps in evidence for people with suspected rare genetic conditions.
Freedom of information responses collected at the start of 2026 showed that submissions were inconsistent, incomplete or absent. Three hubs, in the South East, South West, and North East and Yorkshire, said they did not routinely submit variants. The other four also had backlogs or gaps.
Private education
The cost to the taxpayer of sending children to private special educational needs schools in Kent has “soared” by more than 400% in recent years, a former head teacher has said.
Data obtained by Peter Read showed spending by Kent County Council (KCC) increased from £27.6m in 2019-20 to £143.7m in 2025-26, a rise of 429%.
Read, who obtained the figures using freedom of information requests, said 27% of pupils attending special schools in Kent were being educated privately.
School timetables
The curriculum can end up stuffed with things schools need to find time to teach. So what gets squeezed?
Despite Religion, Values and Ethics (RVE) being a mandatory component of the Curriculum for Wales, a new Bangor University report has found some school learners are not receiving their legal entitlement.
Researchers discovered some schools allocated as little as 15–20 minutes a week or less to the subject, while two schools did not teach the subject at all, despite it being mandatory.
The report, Religion, Values and Ethics in Wales: A National Analysis of Secondary School Provision under the Curriculum for Wales (2026), is the most comprehensive study of RVE provision undertaken in Wales to date.
Drawing on a national Freedom of Information survey of all 195 secondary schools in Wales, the research is based on responses from 135 schools, representing almost 70% of the country’s secondary sector.
AI cheating
Oxford University’s investigations into suspected academic misconduct involving artificial intelligence (AI) have risen 46% in a year, Cherwell can reveal, with most investigations in the last three years occurring in the Social Sciences Division.
Data obtained by Cherwell through a Freedom of Information (FOI) request shows 35 investigations into unauthorised AI use in university assessments in the 2025-2026 academic year, a rise from 24 in 2024-2025. Only one such investigation occurred in 2023-2024, the first recorded since the emergence of large language models (LLMs) and generative AI in 2022.
Asbestos
More asbestos has been discovered in Parliament, the BBC has learnt, as MPs come under pressure to sign off on a major revamp of the crumbling home of UK democracy.
Known asbestos items in the Palace of Westminster and wider parliamentary estate, such as insulation, roofing, floor tiles and ropes, now number more than 1,650 – an increase of 500 since 2021.
In the past five years, 700 items of asbestos have been removed from Parliament but the total has still risen, a Freedom of Information request by the BBC found.
Quitting staff
Almost nine in ten MPs’ staff have considered leaving and the number of MPs’ staff quitting within their first year has risen by 59% in two years, according to new figures obtained by GMB Union.
Data released by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) under Freedom of Information shows 805 staff left within 12 months of starting in 2025/26, up from 505 in 2023/24.
Train delays
Oh look, something to ask train companies about as they become subject to FOI.
Data revealing one in four trains through a commuter station are delayed or cancelled has been slammed as “simply not good enough”.
Three Rivers District Council leader Stephen Giles-Medhurst has called for a meeting with London Northwestern Railway (LNR) bosses after the figures for Kings Langley Station were revealed through a freedom of information request.
Lots of road closures
Drivers travelling between York and the Yorkshire coast have faced more than 5,200 hours of A64 closures since the start of 2020, it can be revealed.
The data, covering the route between Hopgrove roundabout and Scarborough, records 671 closure shifts totalling 5,224 hours – the equivalent of almost 218 days of closure activity across the network. The total reflects closures at different locations along the route since 2020.
The information was released by National Highways in response to a Freedom of Information request by the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS).
Dog thefts
New figures reveal that dog thefts climbed by 5% in 2025 to nearly 1,200 incidents, despite new legislation designed to treat companion animals as more than mere property.
Freedom of Information data gathered from police forces across the country identified the five breeds most commonly stolen:
- Staffordshire Bull Terrier
- French Bulldog
- Dachshund
- German Shepherd
- Cocker Spaniel
Littering
More than 4,000 fines have been handed out across Liverpool for litter and environmental crimes in the three quarters of 2026 to date. Data revealed from a Freedom of Information (FOI) request revealed how the city centre continues to be a hot spot for offenders with almost half the recorded fines across the two wards from January to September.
Neighbouring Brownlow Hill was the second busiest area ticketed by members of Liverpool Council’s external waste enforcement officers. Officials from Waste Investigations Support Service (WISE) issued penalties to more than 700 people up to and including last month.
Gridlock
The closure of the A420/Coxwell Road entrance to Faringdon at the same time as ongoing works on the Park Road entrance left only one unimpeded road onto the A420 for the town.
The other route, London Street, was also restricted by Thames Water for emergency access.
The closures caused high levels of gridlock in Faringdon, disrupting residents’ ability to get to work, school, medical appointments, and the rest.
A Freedom of Information (FOI) request to Oxfordshire County Council, by Faringdon Town Councillor Richard Johnson, revealed that there was no cumulative traffic-impact assessment for the simultaneous closure of the A420/Coxwell Road entrance and the works on Park Road.
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