It’s good to see people coming out in support of Freedom of Information.
Jump to this week’s FOI stories…
The UK Government has floated possible plans to cut the cost limit for dealing with FOI requests. Its complaint seems to be that requests have rocketed and budgets are under pressure.
Currently, staff time for dealing with FOI requests is charged at a flat rate of £25 an hour, and the limit per request is set at £600 for central government (or 24 hours) and £450 for other public bodies (or 18 hours).
The plans came in for quick criticism from groups like the Campaign for FOI and Transparency International UK, as well as from journalists who are regular user of the Act1.
Bodies representing journalists and news organisations have now joined in calling on the Government to reconsider any moves to restrict FOI.
Dawn Alford, chief executive of the Society of Editors, said: “The Freedom of Information Act is a vital mechanism for ensuring accountability and transparency in government and any attempt to restrict the scope of the legislation would be damaging to democracy.”
In a letter to the Government, News Media Association chief executive Owen Meredith said reducing the cost threshold would expand the discretion of public authorities to refuse requests in a “highly concerning way”.
“It is not routine or trivial requests that would be excluded,” he said. “It is the most sensitive and significant ones – those involving complex decision-making, high-value contracts, safeguarding, multi-agency correspondence, and procurement.”
Even the people who usually side with cutting FOI costs are joining in…
Councillors in North Yorkshire have also raised concerns about local government transparency in response to potential changes to the FOI Act.
Cllr Michelle Donohue-Moncrieff, an Independent on North Yorkshire Council, said: “Materials obtained through Freedom of Information requests are very important for the public and those who represent them”, adding the proposed changes would make public bodies less accountable.
Labour councillor and former journalist, John Ritchie, said he fully appreciates that researching complicated and involved FOI requests can be costly and time consuming for local government employees, but said “this must be balanced against the damage this proposed reduction in costs would cause, foremost a lack of transparency and openness at a time when politicians of all hues need to rebuild public trust”.
Protest for FOI rights
We haven’t quite reached that point yet, but if we do we can possibly get some inspiration for protest signs from Canada.
Proposed changes to FOI laws in Ontario was one of the things being protested by crowds in the Canadian province at the weekend.
The proposals, which would stop the release of any messages involving ministers and staff, have been bundled into a bumper budget bill. Opposition parties are concerned the size of the bill will prevent debate about individual elements, and the legislation will be fast-tracked through.
Criticism of the plans also came from a former Ontario premier. Kathleen Wynne says being subject to the FOI Act often isn’t fun, but it’s part of the job and it’s important for democracy for people to be able to find out what their government is doing.
‘Please include any information covering the past 400 years…’
Not really a repeatable FOI story this one. Not sure there’s many nearly 400-year-old wills threatening local housing development plans.
Thanet District Council has given outline planning permission to a 1,600-home estate on Kent farmland in Birchington, near Margate. That was despite almost 2,000 objections.
However, a will, dating back to 1642, left the farmland to St John’s College, Cambridge, to fund scholarships and fellowships for young people born in Thanet and educated at The King’s School in Canterbury.
Local resident David Peerless says there is no evidence those scholarships have ever been awarded – or that the terms of the bequest were ever formally changed or brought to an end.
Mr Peerless obtained a copy of the will from the college using Freedom of Information laws, after being alerted to its existence by the Birchington Historical Trust.
He is now seeking a judicial review to ensure the historic conditions attached to the land are properly considered. He insists the move is not an attempt to block the development.
This week’s FOI stories…
Care home complaints
More than 290,000 reports of abuse were made in care homes across England between 2023 and 2025, according to new data obtained by Legal Expert.
The figures, secured through a Freedom of Information request to the Care Quality Commission, show a sharp rise in reports over the three-year period. In 2023, there were 90,232 reports, rising to 106,772 in 2025, an increase of 18%.
Hospital crime
A total of 10 reports of sexual offences have been made at Ysbyty Glan Clwyd, Bodelwyddan in the last year.
This has been revealed following a Freedom of Information request, made by the Journal to North Wales Police.
The force was asked to provide a breakdown of the number of reports of a sexual offence made at the hospital since March 20, 2025, including the date the report was made, the outcome of the report, and a brief summary of the alleged incident.
The summaries of incidents suggest the reports in the figures include incidents that happened at the hospital as well as those that happened elsewhere but were disclosed by the victim while they were at the hospital.
Bus crash
The number of London buses damaged in crashes and collisions is rising, new figures show.
There were 15,390 incidents leading to damage in 2025 and nearly 16,000 in 2024, according to Transport for London (TfL) who released the data following a Freedom of Information Act (FOI) request.
In 2019, the earliest year for which comparable data is available, there were just 12,857 such incidents. The number of crashes during the Covid pandemic in 2020 (11,035) and 2021 (12,380) was even lower. There were 13,754 damage incidents in 2022 and 14,986 in 2023.
TfL said the data “includes all incidents where damage has been reported, including minor damage to the vehicle” such as paint scuffs, mirrors, and lights but “does not imply which road user’s behaviour or error may have led to the incident”.
Shoplifting by shop
A recent Freedom of Information response from Norfolk Constabulary has revealed the Norwich shops that have reported shoplifting crimes most frequently in the last year.
Castle Quarter, Chantry Place and Haymarket all reported fewer crimes in 2025 than in the previous year.
Mountain Warehouse in the Haymarket area still reported a large number of shoplifting offences, with 43 incidents in 2025 – a decrease of seven from 2024.
The number of reported offences in Primark dropped to nearly a third of those recorded last year, from 32 to 12.
In London Street, the Tesco Metro reported nearly triple the amount of shoplifting, with 33 reports in 2024 and 93 in 2025.
Speeding past schools
The father of a nine-year-old girl has been left ‘horrified’ at the number of drivers speeding outside a Swindon primary school, as over 4,000 have been caught.
Alistair Flockhart is a father and former governor of Holy Cross Primary School on Queens Drive in Swindon.
The 30mph road joins onto Swindon’s famous Magic Roundabout, which is used by thousands of drivers every day.
A Freedom of Information request put to Wiltshire Police shows that in 2025, police caught 4,261 drivers speeding outside the Swindon primary school. Some were caught going at more than twice the 30mph speed limit.
Water pollution
Stark new figures have revealed the scale of water pollution in Fermanagh, highlighting the repeated dumping of hazardous materials, asbestos, and fuel laundering waste into waterways across the region.
The figures, obtained through Freedom of Information (FoI) requests, also provide a detailed breakdown of around 200 incidents reported across Fermanagh and South Tyrone since 2020.
Towns such as Omagh and Enniskillen have emerged as consistent hotspots for illegal dumping, with incidents recorded across both urban centres and surrounding rural areas.
Studio finances
The West of England’s largest film and television studios has released information about its finances for the first time, Business Live can exclusively reveal. The Bristol City Council-owned Bottle Yard, in Hengrove, provided the details following a Freedom of Information (FOI) request.
Previous requests by journalists, local councillors and members of the public for any information on the Bottle Yard’s finances have repeatedly been rejected on the grounds the accounts are “commercially sensitive”. Business Live logged an FOI on January 27 and Bristol City Council took 64 days to reply, despite regulations requiring public bodies to respond within 20 days.
In its response to the FOI, the council told Business Live that over the last financial year (2025-2026) the Bottle Yard’s budget was -£177,625. It is understood that Bristol City Council uses an accounting approach that targets zero to balance the books over the year, with money generated by the studios used to reach that target.
Business Live understands the Bottle Yard is an income-generating service and was targeting a surplus of £177,625 for the year. It is understood the studios achieved a surplus for 2025-2026, but it is not yet known whether that surplus is at the full target.
Concert prices
Events in Cardiff parks and at Cardiff Castle last summer generated over £600,000 of revenue, a freedom of information (FOI) request has revealed.
Concerts from the likes of Alanis Morissette, Noah Kahan, Stevie Wonder, and Will Smith took over Blackweir Fields and Cardiff Castle last year.
Cardiff Council is still refusing to to release the amount of money that it raised solely from Blackweir Live 2025, which took place in the fields.
Ferry cancellations
Crisis talks have been held ahead of the Easter holidays as Scotland’s beleaguered ferry fleet faces further disruption.
A spate of engine problems has left eight CalMac ferries out of action, with the operator warning of a “critical” shortage of vessels.
Data released under Freedom of Information shows cancellations for technical reasons rose from 709 in 2015 to 7,371 in 2025.
Figures from last year indicate that, for the first time in at least a decade, most cancellations were caused by technical faults rather than weather or other factors. In 2015, technical issues accounted for just one in 10 cancellations.
Hotel expenses
With FOI stories like this, how much of a story it actually is usually depends on how big the spending is in the context of an overall budget and how reasonable the spending seems.
With these hotel costs, the expenses might be reasonable. But £125 a night is a short-notice booking at the nice Doubletree by Hilton in Hull city centre, which might suggest a more efficient travel booking system could be helpful for that cost saving target.
The chief executive of the region’s crisis-hit hospitals trust has been claiming thousands of pounds in hotel expenses as the organisation has slumped to the bottom of the national performance rankings.
Lyn Simpson joined Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (HUTH) in July 2025 on a salary of £279,162 a year.
Now, despite the partnership having a cost savings target in excess of £100m this year, and staff having apply to senior management to buy basic items such as pens and pads of paper, The Hull Story can exclusively reveal Ms Simpson has been spending thousands on accommodation and travel.
Following a Freedom of Information (FoI) request, the trust has disclosed Ms Simpson has claimed £4,875 for 39 overnight stays – £125 per night. She has also claimed £629.65 in travel costs.
Travel expense
A Reading councillor has defended his record as Mayor over allegations of wasteful spending.
Councillor Glenn Dennis (Labour, Kentwood) was the Mayor of Reading for 2024/25. Among nearly 200 civic engagements attended included the 2024 European football championship in Düsseldorf, Germany, to watch Ukraine beat Slovakia 2-1.
Reading Borough Council spent £919.98 on flights for the visit, which was revealed in a freedom of information (FOI) request by the Local Democracy Reporting Service.
This cost seems to be from a follow-up FOI request to an earlier one that asked for a total for travel expenses and what trips had been made.
Armed police
It’s not clear what these figures actually are measuring.
The numbers are much higher than the number of firearms operations (492 in 2024/25) for Avon & Somerset as a whole. At the least, this one probably includes incidents where armed officers were stood down before being deployed.
On February 26, 2026, a Freedom of Information Request was submitted by the Gazette, asking for data on the number of times armed police assisted Avon and Somerset Police during 2025.
Data released by the information and disclosure manager from the Freedom of Information Services Directorate for the Avon and Somerset Police revealed that firearms officers supported Avon and Somerset Police with 2,777 in Somerset in 2025.
The data shows that, on average, there were 231 incidents a month attended by firearms officers in Somerset.
Website views
Another one where what’s requested, what’s provided, and what’s written about might not all be the same thing.
Pembrokeshire County Council staff scoured the internet for X-rated material hundreds of times on their official devices.
New figures show civil servants at the council – where employees are allowed to work from home two days a week – searched for adult content sites 122 times last November. The figure was 107 in December, 119 in January and jumped to a whopping 165 in February, a Freedom of Information request revealed.
And staff searched for platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime 52,782 times in November, 42,483 times in December, just over 40,000 times in January and 36,000 times in February.
With around 3,000 staff, that’s an average of about 15 visits per month per person.
But the FOI response said “A ‘hit’ in our filtering platform represents any URL request that matches a category rule. A single user action can generate many ‘hits’”.
Which suggests one search/visit may generate multiple ‘hits’ (those adult content visits look less ‘whopping’ in that context). I’d guess some of those streaming service ‘hits’ are being flagged from adverts on other sites.
Not viewing websites
The anger of civil servants has been revealed after the Scottish Government banned using work devices to purchase concert tickets and Amazon shopping.
An IT crackdown was revealed in December where staff were banned from using their work laptops and mobile phones to buy tickets to gigs or sports events. Online shopping and streaming videos was also banned.
There were six attempts to log onto X-rated sites such as Pornhub in November last year alone, the Scottish Government revealed.
But freedom of information requests seen by The Herald have revealed the extent of anger within the civil service, including warnings it was fuelled by the “right wing media” and widened the digital divide for workers who could not afford their own devices.
One civil servant described the policy as “wildly disproportionate”, arguing: “If I’ve followed the guidance correctly, it’s now considered misconduct to buy a cinema ticket or do a bit of online shopping on your work laptop while on your lunch break and it ‘may lead to disciplinary and/or criminal proceedings’”.
Pet thefts
Always worth checking Whatdotheyknow for any FOI requests for public bodies in your area.
West Midlands Police (WMP) has received reports of over 500 pet thefts incidents over the last five years, a Freedom of Information Request (FOI) has revealed.
The data, obtained through an FOI published on Whatdotheyknow, highlighted over the last five years there has been a total of 535 reported pet thefts incidents to WMP.
Of the list of reported property stolen, the police shared the statistics for: pet animal-bird, pet animal-dog, pet animal-other, cat, horse, rabbit and tortoise.
The highest number of reported pet theft incidents linked to dogs, with a staggering 384 reports lodged to the police over the last five years.
Phone thefts
Fewer than one per cent of mobile phone thefts result in a charge, damning police data has revealed.
A freedom of information request has shown that nearly nine in 10 cases were closed without a suspect being identified, with the Met Police closing 95 per cent of their investigations.
In the year 2024-25, 86,000 phone thefts were reported to the Met, which is the UK’s largest police force.
Of the 17 police forces that responded, the request revealed that just 0.3 per cent of thefts reported to the Met result in a charge.
ISA savings
The ‘how many £2 million ISAs?’ FOI is the new ‘how many £1 million ISAs?’ FOI.
The £2 million ISA is becoming the new £1 million ISA with 270 individuals holding more than £2 million in their ISA accounts last year, according to new data from Bowmore Wealth Group.
Data obtained from a Freedom of Information request to HMRC.
Disrupted flights
Hundreds of disruptive passengers have caused West Midlands Police to board planes at Birmingham Airport over the last decade.
A total of 255 passengers have been so disruptive that officers have been forced to intervene since the start of 2016.
They resulted in 201 passengers being removed from the flight, with 180 being arrested, often for alcohol-related incidents.
The figures have come to light thanks to Freedom of Information requests made to West Midlands Police, and cover the period from the start of 2016 to the end of August 2025.
Passport picture
- Last year, over two-thirds (67.5%) of those applying online uploaded their photo themselves.
- But nearly a third (32.5%) – equivalent to over 2.1 million people – paid for a photo from a booth or shop.
- Of those who used their own photo, the vast majority were accepted first time round. However, nearly one in seven (13.5%) faced delays to their application due to issues with their photo.
Image by Vlada Karpovich on Pexels
- Declaration of interest here, I’m both a journalist who’s a regular user of the Act and a board member for CFOI. ↩︎
