Just a quick round-up this week…
This week’s Freedom of Information stories…
Cancer screening
The SNP’s new Health Secretary has been criticised after it emerged there are huge “inequalities” in bowel cancer screening uptakes in her local council.
The figures, highlighted by Labour MP for Livingston Gregor Poynton, showed that people living in the most deprived communities in West Lothian have a screening uptake rate of just 53.1 per cent.
This was 21 points below the wealthiest communities on 74.8 per cent.
The Freedom of Information (FOI) Request showed some communities in West Lothian have bowel screening participation rates barely above 50 per cent, despite screening being one of the most effective tools for catching cancer early and saving lives.
Domestic abuse
Almost a quarter of those arrested for participating in the racist disorder in Belfast in August 2024 have since been reported to the police for domestic abuse.
PSNI data released under Freedom of Information laws shows that 12 of the 49 people arrested (24.5%) were later reported for domestic abuse.
The Detail previously revealed that almost half of those arrested in connection with the riots had been the subject of a domestic abuse report before their involvement in the disorder.
Mould removal
Over £5 million was spent removing mould from Fife Council’s residential properties in the last half a decade.
According to data revealed via a freedom of information request, last year saw the council contacted 953 times about mould in their residential properties, which cost £816,120.61 to address.
In 2024 it was 673 cases that led to an overall bill of £675,234.36, and each of the last four years has seen the authority have to shell out significantly less than the £1,947,438.71 to deal with 1812 reports in 2021.
Housing contributions
Somerset Council is owed nearly £318,000 from five housing developments – and is pursuing legal action to secure the funding.
Housing developers provide financial contributions to a range of local services (ranging from affordable housing to public open space and new primary school places) through legal agreements with the local authority, known as a Section 106 agreement.
A Freedom of Information request by the Local Democracy Reporting Service has now revealed that the council is still owed £317,774.50 from five major housing developments – one of which dates back to 2015.
Empty shops
Under the Freedom of Information Act, ITV News asked councils across the Midlands for figures on the number of empty shops in their areas.
Of 56 local councils, only 35 were able to provide those figures – but they paint a deeply worrying picture.
Of just under 71,000 retail units, almost 7,000 are standing empty – that’s 9.7%, or around one in every 10 shops.
Fit for duty
According to a Freedom of Information request made by The House, the number of Navy personnel who passed their fitness tests between 2014 and 2024 fell dramatically.
Between 2014 and 2015, 96.6 per cent of both men and women in the fleet passed their fitness tests on first attempt. However, 10 years later only 77 per cent of people passed the exams initially – a drop of almost 20 percentage points.
The number of Royal Navy personnel who failed their fitness tests at the first time of asking but passed within a year increased from 21 people to 1,219, 10 years later.
No lifts
A busy South West London Tube station was the worst affected in the capital for lift closures caused by staff shortages last year, with passengers left without step-free access for nearly 1,500 hours, new figures have revealed.
Data from Transport for London (TfL) shows lifts across the London Underground network were shut for a record 6,365 hours in 2025 because of trained staff shortages.
The figures, obtained through a Freedom of Information request, show Wimbledon Park station recorded 1,435 hours of lift closures across 244 separate incidents during 2025. One incident saw the lift close continuously for 424 hours, from November 20 until December 8, after no trained staff were available at the station.
Security costs
The taxpayer cost of security at a closed Nottingham community centre has reached almost £300,000 – the same figure that the city council originally said was too much to save the building.
A Freedom of Information request shows that the authority has spent £282,870 on security measures at the Marcus Garvey Centre in Lenton Boulevard since it was condemned.
When the authority closed the building in February 2025, the repair bill was estimated at between £200,000 and £300,000. In documents seen at the time of the closure, the authority stated that repairing the building would be too expensive and recommended closure.
But this original estimate was later revised, and a rough figure of £1 million was then given to repair the building and rectify the fire safety issues.
Tartan week
City of Glasgow College spent almost £14k on a trip to Tartan Week in New York.
Expenses for the staff jaunt to the United States included a trip to the State University of New York (SUNY) in a limousine costing nearly £700 and almost £2,000 for a supper club event with the American Scottish Foundation.
The college’s costs for Tartan Week in New York – an annual event which celebrates links between Scotland and the US – were released under freedom of information legislation.
Absent due to ferry
Argyll and Bute Council has confirmed that pupils from island communities who attend high school in Oban are not marked absent from class if they are unable to attend due to ferry and weather related disruption. A spokesperson advised The Herald that these pupils are recorded as participating in ‘virtual learning at home’, but that this approach groups island children together with others affected by transport problems on the mainland.
The Herald submitted a Freedom of Information request to the council asking it confirm the number of schools days that have been lost by pupils who board in the hostel as a result of “weather related and/or ferry related disruption”.
Officials refused the request on the basis that such information is not held by the authority because its schools “don’t have specific absence codes for these circumstances.”
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