The FOI Act turned 20 on Wednesday (January 1).
As is traditional at this time of year, we’ll be marking it with a bumper round up of FOI stories that got everyone through the quieter festive period.
Which is a nice reminder that as much as politicians and public bodies are unenthusiastic about FOI and seek to avoid it, it’s still a great tool for getting information out (as Scottish Labour would probably agree).
When it came to limiting information to release, back 20 years ago, “Post-it notes are the answer!”.
One No 10 adviser, wrote to Mr Blair suggesting Post-it notes – which could presumably then be thrown away once the message had been read – as a way of getting round the requirement to disclose official material in response to FoI requests.
The Scottish Act also turned 20, and the Scottish Information Commissioner marked the occasion by calling for the Act to be updated.
David Hamilton said “the extension of FOI rights to bodies that provide vital services like care homes is long overdue”. The Scottish government recently announced it has delayed plans to take forward the extension of FOI to social care providers due to delays to the National Care Service Bill.
Fraud losses
Fraudsters have stolen more than £100m from the NHS in the past five years, exploiting weaknesses in IT systems to commit crimes ranging from stealing credit card data to hacking supplier emails, The Independent can reveal.
In total, the cost of fraud to the NHS in England was £101m in the five years to 2023/24.
As for individual trusts within the NHS, freedom of information requests show that University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust lost £30,615 in a 2020 bank mandate fraud. The trust declined to say more, but often in these cases criminals intercept emails and impersonate a supplier to trick staff into transferring money into fraudulent accounts, the funds from which are then moved out of the UK.
Pension costs
Nearly £1 in every £4 raised in council tax is now being spent on staff pensions. An analysis showed that councils contributed nearly £7billion to their employees’ pensions over the past year, The Times reported.
Some 254 of Britain’s 317 councils replied to Freedom of Information (FoI) requests submitted by the newspaper.
These showed the local authorities paid £5billion into their staff pensions last year, which was an average of 23.5 per cent of their council tax revenue.
Violence in GP surgeries
Crime has soared by nearly 30% in West Yorkshire’s GP practices and health centres, shocking new figures have revealed.
Medical professionals have hit out over the “trauma” caused by crimes as it emerged that 326 offences had been committed in 2023/24 – up from 251 in 2022/23.
Long mental health waits
Statistics, released under freedom of information requests by the Scottish Liberal Democrats, suggested a postcode lottery for young people approaching Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS).
The figures show that children across health boards are waiting years to receive treatment from the service. NHS Lothian had the worst performance, with a child waiting 1,100 days to be seen by professionals, according to the data from this year.
NHS Lothian, Highland, Lanarkshire and Orkney all had patients waiting more than a year to be seen by CAMHS. The same health boards also saw patients waiting more than a year to start treatment over the past year.
School absence fines
The Oldham schools with the highest numbers of fines issued due to student absences have been revealed.
Following a Freedom of Information Act request from The Oldham Times, the number of fines schools have issued to parents over the course of a year have now been made public.
The data shows that between October 1, 2023 and the same date this year, The Radclyffe School in Chadderton issued the most fines, with 363 in total.
The second most fines were issued by North Chadderton School, with 261 in total, while Oldham Academy North was third with 256.
Rats in hospitals
A Scottish Labour freedom of information has revealed the health service in Scotland has spent £4.3m on pest control since 2019.
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde’s spend was the highest at £2.1m. NHS Grampian spent nearly half a million pounds
Scottish Labour deputy leader Jackie Baillie said: “These figures tell a story of a constant battle to keep our crumbling hospitals and clinics safe from pests.”
Rats everywhere
The ECHO submitted a Freedom of Information request to Liverpool City Council asking for the number of call outs made by the council’s pest control team to properties in different parts of the city in 2024 where rats had been reported.
The council wards with the most calls:
- Norris Green – 366
- Anfield – 303
- Yew Tree – 251
- Kensington and Fairfield – 224
- County – 218
‘Killer’ rats
Glaswegians are increasingly coming under attack from aggressive rats which have left more than 100 residents needing hospital treatment.
A Freedom of Information request has revealed that more than 100 people have required treatment at Greater Glasgow and Clyde Hospitals as the public are increasingly coming under siege by the potentially deadly disease carriers.
Flytipping hotspots
The Wigan Post submitted a request to the local authority under the Freedom of Information Act to uncover the roads in the borough which were blighted by fly-tipping.
The 10 streets identified as hot-spots had a total of 416 reports of fly-tipping within those 12 months.
There were 57 reports of rubbish being dumped on Holly Grove, in Leigh, between December 1, 2023 and November 30, 2024 – making it the borough’s fly-tipping hot-spot.
In second place was Warrington Road in Wigan – which runs from Newtown, through Worsley Mesnes and Goose Green to Marus Bridge – where there were 50 reports of fly-tipping during the 12 months.
Recycling centre abuse
Staff at recycling centres across Essex were shoved, lunged at and threatened by abusive customers, a Freedom of Information (FOI) request has revealed.
Pitsea saw the majority of incidents, with others logged by Essex County Council at sites in Clacton-on-Sea, Witham and Saffron Walden.
Council trips
Of the 22 councils contacted, the majority—such as Wrexham, Vale of Glamorgan, Powys, Anglesey, Newport, and Monmouthshire—confirmed they had not spent any money on overseas trips for their senior officers or elected members during the period in question.
Some councils, such as Rhondda Cynon Taf, Bridgend, and Blaenau Gwent, also reported zero expenditure, while others, including Carmarthenshire and Caerphilly, stated explicitly that no such trips had taken place.
Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council accounted for the most significant expenditure among responding councils. The council disclosed several trips, including visits to France, Norway, and Sweden, as well as travel to Belfast.
Library closures
The Scottish Greens have said the closure of libraries ‘must be stopped’ in order to prevent communities from being ‘destroyed’.
The warning from the party comes after a raft of library closures across Scotland with a recent freedom of information request revealing 42 libraries have shut across the country between 2014 and 2024.
A further 13 libraries across Aberdeenshire are also set to close by the end of the year. Meanwhile, an extra seven libraries in Moray and five in Perth and Kinross are expected to close.
Bumper fare increase
Ministers overruled NorthLink to demand a 10% ferry fare hike – according to a “bombshell” revelation.
The eye-watering fare increase came into effect on January 1 for the lifeline service – much to the consternation of passengers, businesses and tourism operators alike.
But according to government correspondence obtained by a Scottish Labour Freedom of Information request, operators NorthLink and CalMac had requested only a two per cent rise.
Going the wrong way
Reported incidents of wrong-way driving on England’s motorways have increased by 15% in the past year, an investigation has found.
National Highways figures obtained by the PA news agency show 988 incidents involving “oncoming vehicles” were reported on England’s motorways in the year to November 17.
That is up from 858 during the previous 12 months, and represents an average of 19 every week.
Working from the beach
Given the current weather, that sounds tempting.
Town hall bosses approved at least 731 staff requests to work from abroad in 2023/24 – with one council worker logging in from Ibiza for four years.
There were 440 approvals the year after the Covid pandemic and 708 in 2022/23, before rising again last year. A further 226 requests were granted so far in the current financial year.
The real figures are likely to be much higher as many councils failed or refused to answer Freedom of Information requests.
Corgis
FOI and controversial statues seems to be a running theme.
Walsall Council has paid at least £143,000 to the art company responsible for the controversial corgis unveiled in Walsall Arboretum this year.
The amount covers nine art projects across the borough, but the real total paid to Planet Art remains unknown since the authority said it ‘no longer holds’ information for three artworks made by the company.
An internal review has been requested into the council’s decision to withhold the information for the three remaining artworks. The Freedom of Information request was submitted after the council announced it paid £35,000 to Planet Art for two giant corgis unveiled in Walsall Arboretum in October.
Lost books
More than 105,000 books across Essex are presumed by librarians to have been lost, figures show.
Essex County Council said texts were listed as “assumed lost” after 45 days passed without their return.
The authority has received £58,845 in fines from readers who failed to bring books back to its libraries this year, a Freedom of Information request revealed.
Taylor Swift snub
Edinburgh’s Lord Provost spent £1000 of taxpayers’ cash designing tartan guitar straps for Taylor Swift in the hope of meeting her – but was completely snubbed.
Robert Aldridge made a series of cringeworthy approaches attempting to set up a photocall with the singer while she was in Scotland for sell-out summer gigs.
He wanted to hand over a £1200 hamper which included the specially made straps along with a letter suggesting she should wear one on stage at Murrayfield.
After Taylor and her management ignored the Lib Dem provost’s approaches a council official even had to deliver the gift box to the gates. Taylor Swift received a civic gift on behalf of Edinburgh before her Murrayfield gigs this year.
Image by Leah Newhouse on Pexels
