Freedom of Information requests can be handy in August.
It all goes a bit quiet when everyone’s on holiday. Planning to have some responses back in the summer (hopefully) can fill in a few story gaps.
This week’s Freedom of Information stories…
Overheating hospitals
NHS staff are suffering from heat exhaustion during shifts as hospitals reach ‘inhumane and impossible’ temperatures. Unions and professional bodies have urged the government to intervene to protect the workforce.
According to the results of a freedom of information request by the Liberal Democrats, nearly half of NHS trusts have recorded temperatures above 33C on wards since June. The highest temperature was 41.8C, recorded in June at the Northern Care Alliance Trust in Manchester.
Almost all hospitals have seen temperatures exceed the recommended NHS maximum of 28C. On average, they recorded a maximum temperature of 31.9C in July.
Broken air con
More than 1,000 air-conditioning faults have been reported on Transport for Wales trains since April, new figures reveal, as passengers complain of sweltering conditions during recent hot weather.
The figures obtained by the Welsh Liberal Democrats through a Freedom of Information request show 1,018 air conditioning faults were reported between April and August, including 350 in June and another 300 in July.
894 faults had been closed over the same period, suggesting 124 of the reported faults remained outstanding.
Overstretched fire crews
Firefighters have warned that “everyone should be alarmed” after the publication of a dossier exposing a “creaking and straining” fire service.
The figures, obtained by the Scottish Lib Dems through a Freedom of Information request, show the fire service paid out almost £6 million in overtime payments, up from £4.5m in 2021/22.
Meanwhile, mental health absences have skyrocketed, with 12,132 days lost in 2025/26 – this is compared to just 4,219 in 2021/22.
The dossier also reveals “significant holes” in the retained firefighter system, which adds to ‘wholetime’ employed firefighters with an on-call rota, with several stations being well below the recommended staffing level.
Hosepipe bans
Thames Water don’t follow up reports of hosepipe ban breaches, or not for the two recent bans (2022 and last year, 2025). Of the seventy four reports of ban breaches, none of these ‘breaches’ resulted in any form of action, not even warning letters or even an investigation.
A recent FOI (Freedom of Information) request on behalf a firm of Solicitors in the South East (Manak Solicitors) confirms their inaction.
By comparison South East Water issued 1,664 warning letters between 2022 and 2025, while Yorkshire Water issued 62 warning letters across two separate hosepipe bans. They did something.
PTSD
Fire brigade heroes haunted by the Grenfell Tower tragedy have taken more than 8,000 days off work due to post-traumatic stress disorder.
Figures show that even nine years on from the blaze, firefighters took 445 sick days last year because of the psychological trauma they suffered.
A Freedom of Information request shows 8,218 working days have been lost due to firefighters suffering PTSD. Another 446 days have been lost from 999 control room staff also affected by psychological trauma.
London Fire Brigade says 30 staff – 27 firefighters and three control operators – have been diagnosed with PTSD since the disaster. So far, 16 staff – 15 firefighters and one member of the 999 control room staff – have been retired because of their psychological damage.
Offences at schools
Devon and Cornwall Police has said a rise in the number of reported sexual offences against children in schools over the past five years may be down to increased reporting and agencies working more closely together.
A recent Freedom of Information Request response by the force showed in 2021 there were 121 reported offences. The following year this had only risen by four reports, to 125 and by 2023 this had risen again by just four alleged incidents to 129.
However, by 2024 this had risen to 139 report but by 2025 this had jumped to 174 reported incidents – a total of 688 reported incidents over a five year period across all of Devon and Cornwall’s schools.
Data breach
A hospital worker shared a screenshot of a patient’s medical record with their partner after accessing up to 200 individual patient records without permission at a Somerset NHS trust, new documents reveal.
Victims told the BBC they are disgusted the worker, who resigned before any disciplinary action, received only a police caution.
Correspondence obtained by the BBC under the Freedom of Information Act suggests patient information may have been shared and that a patient was contacted using a phone number obtained from hospital records.
Mental health care
Data obtained by a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (SABP) found injuries more than quadrupled in two years.
In 2023/24, 92 service user injuries were reported, rising to 365 incidents in 2024/25 and 431 in 2025/26 – more than one incident reported daily on average in the most recent complete financial year.
Clean air
Corporation Street at Aston Road is Birmingham’s biggest Clean Air Zone fine hotspot, with 57,165 PCNs recorded against the council’s highest-ranking inbound entry. That’s equivalent to an average of almost 157 fines every day and more than six every hour. The location alone accounts for 14% of all Clean Air Zone PCNs issued.
According to Freedom of Information data obtained by finance experts at Fast Loan UK, 407,633 Penalty Charge Notices (PCNs) were issued during 2025/26. That equates to 1,117 fines every day, almost 47 every hour, or one every 77 seconds.
Parking problems
Each year a residents’ parking permit scheme is set up in the streets around Heaton Park for the massive Parklife Festival.
A Freedom of Information request reveals that 414 fines were issued for breaches at Parklife 2026, and 81 of these were later withdrawn.
Residents in the area said the event is ‘out of control’, with a number of people telling the Local Democracy Reporting Service that some event-goers are actively ignoring the parking restrictions because the cost of the fine – particularly when split between four or five passengers – is worth risking.
Fines start at £70, Bury Council has said. However, these are understood to reduce to £35 if paid within two weeks.
Phone thefts
London accounted for the vast majority of mobile phone thefts and robberies recorded in England and Wales last year, with more than 72,000 offences in the capital – equivalent to 87% of the national total.
Police forces in England and Wales recorded at least 83,000 crimes where people had their phones snatched or robbed from their person in 2025. That’s down 12% from almost 94,000 in 2024, though is still more than the 80,000 that were nicked in 2023.
Illegal e-bikes
Police forces in Dorset, Hampshire and the Thames Valley are among over 11 nationally that have seen the number of illegal e-bikes they seized last year more than double, new figures show.
Thames Valley Police saw the highest rise of the three forces, confiscating 425 of the machines in the 12 months to May 19 – up from 163. Dorset Police and Hampshire Constabulary recorded rises in e-bike seizures of 91 and 90 respectively.
It comes as data, obtained by the Press Association (PA) under freedom-of-information laws, found that some 7,049 e-bikes were seized across the UK last year. That is compared with 3,858 during the previous 12 months.
Late payments
The Department for Business and Trade (DBT), which supports UK economic growth by promoting trade, investment and business innovation, recorded £28.2 million in late payments over the past three years.
The data came from a Freedom of Information (FOI) request and was analysed by the Parliament think tank, which tracked the department’s total number of late invoices and the total amount of those payments between April 2023 and May 2026.
Over this period, the DBT recorded 1,449 late invoices. In the most recent year, April 2025 to March 2026, 369 invoices were late, totalling £6,900,424.57, and a further 16 invoices were late between April and May 2026, totalling £220,388.39.
Sea rescue
Greenock’s Coastguard Rescue Team is one of the busiest across the UK according to newly released data as campaigners say they deserve to be sufficiently paid for their service.
According to figures released under the Freedom of Information Act, the Inverclyde team is in the top 10 per cent of attendance requests, ranking 29th of 321.
Escalators
Transport for London (TfL) must spend more to refurbish and replace ageing escalators on the London Underground, a senior London Assembly member has said.
Freedom of Information data released in July revealed 153 out of 566 escalators – over a quarter – on the Underground were operating beyond their expected shelf life.
Elly Baker, the transport spokesperson for the City Hall Labour group, said TfL had recently shifted from a model where they would refurbish escalators after 20 years and completely replace them after 40 years to taking a “risk-based approach”, where escalators are closely monitored, to save money.
Classic cars
Nearly half of all classic cars in Britain are not being driven – and are declared officially ‘off the road’.
Heritage Car Insurance has analysed statistics from the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA), following a Freedom of Information (FOI) request.
The new FOI data shows the UK has just over 1.34 million historic vehicles – i.e. cars that are more than 40 years of age.
Of these, some 640,243 currently have a Statutory Off Road Notification (SORN). This means 47.6 percent of classics are not currently in use.
Plant pots
Households across Sussex face a “postcode lottery” when it comes to recycling plastic plant pots, according to a new report.
Despite recycling reforms coming into force in England on March 31, many councils still do not collect non-black plastic plant pots through household recycling services, the Horticultural Trades Association (HTA) found.
Data obtained through Freedom of Information requests shows a mixed picture across Sussex.
Brighton and Hove City Council is listed as compliant and has been collecting non-black plastic plant pots since June 2025. Adur District Council and Worthing Borough Council, meanwhile, are listed as not currently collecting the pots, although both have plans to introduce collections in future.
Library fines
North Yorkshire Council, which operates more than 40 libraries across the county, does not know how many people are banned from its sites.
Last year, more than 99,000 individual item fines were issued with 22,423 borrowers linked to those fines, a Freedom of Information (FoI) request has revealed.
The council – which operates libraries in towns including Harrogate, Scarborough, Malton, Skipton, Northallerton, and Selby – said the lack of information was due to the absence of “consistent storage of data to retrieve”.
The authority added that there were a “range of banning types and procedures” which include temporary bans issued verbally by local branches and which are recorded only on customer accounts.
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