Freedom of Information can’t be used to find out why loads of people in Wales spent five minutes not entirely sure if the world was ending.
Jump to this week’s Freedom of Information stories,,.
Last month’s ‘don’t set fire to things with barbecues’ alert went out in Welsh…followed by a long delay before the English version followed. Those without adequate Welsh skills were left using various methods to translate and North Wales police reported a jump in 999 calls.
An FOI request for more information about how and when the messages were sent has been refused on the grounds of safeguarding national security.
Under the Welsh Language Act 1993, the principle is the Welsh version is before or directly alongside the English version, and the response confirms this was why the Welsh version was sent first. But generally, in an actual emergency, people would prefer the English in the same message or at least immediately after.
Back in court…again
At this point the Scottish Government and Scottish Information Commissioner seem to barely leave.
Some of the requested documents relating to the investigation into whether Nicola Sturgeon breached the ministerial code in relation to complaints about her predecessor Alex Salmond have been released. But some information was withheld because 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, everyone is heading back to the Court of Session (again) on September 22.
The Scottish Government will argue it’s not the Scottish Information Commissioner’s job to decide if something is contemptuous or not.
The Commissioner argues ministers are effectively seeking to rewrite the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act to make them primary decision-makers on whether the exemption applies.
A potentially fascinating part of the argument is whether the Commissioner ordering the release of information would prevent the public body being found in contempt. Especially because not releasing it would then put them at risk of being found in contempt.
Though I think this one is more likely resolved by, if you think the Commissioner is wrong, appeal until a court makes a decision either way instead.
There are other Freedom of Information related things happening in Scotland
A vibes-based interpretation of ‘information not held’ isn’t going to cut it.
Dumfries and Galloway Council was asked whether it had petitioned the courts for a change of use for any common land that may have been affected by a flood protection scheme.
The request was refused. The requester appealed to the Scottish Information Commissioner who decided the request was under the Environmental Information Regulations and the council changed it’s position to say it didn’t hold a list of instances in which it petitioned the court.
It was asked for details of searches that had been undertaken to locate relevant information. The council told the Commissioner no searches had been carried out, because it had “no reason to believe the information should be held”.
Weirdly, this didn’t work and the Commissioner ruled the council needs to do the searches, saying it had “failed at the most basic level of FOI request-handling”.
“This approach is entirely unacceptable. I will not tolerate attempts to cut corners or shut down requests when it comes to the exercise of information rights.“
Scottish Information Commissioner David Hamilton
High numbers of requests
Very retro to see journalists getting the blame for poor FOI response performance.
Shetland Islands Council is looking at the “resourcing” of information requests to handle the “growing workload” as part of an organisational restructure.
Last year Lerwick South councillor John Fraser blamed “speculative national press” for putting a strain on already stretched council workers as they respond to freedom of information requests. In Scotland, round robins by political parties are probably playing a part.
But the council’s legal chief Jan Riise told elected members FoIs were “becoming a bit of a game by local journalists”. I tend to think those kind of requests are a reasonable part of being a local authority.
This week’s Freedom of Information stories…
Pava spray
Black boys have been disproportionately subjected to Pava spray in prisons holding children since its introduction last year, latest figures show.
Data obtained by the Howard League for Penal Reform through freedom of information requests to the Ministry of Justice show the chemical incapacitant spray was used against 33 children and young people at Feltham A and Werrington between its rollout in 2025 and the end of March 2026.
Of those, 18 were black and six were white. Black children and young people accounted for around 55% of those sprayed, despite making up about 30% of the population across the two prisons.
Play in hospital
Children are being ‘exposed to avoidable trauma’ in hospital because of too few health play professionals, reveals charity as it calls on the Government and NHS to invest in the profession.
New Freedom of Information (FOI) data obtained by Starlight – a charity working to put play at the heart of every child’s healthcare – reveals there are just 955 full-time equivalent health play professionals supporting around 21,061,311 child hospital admissions for each year across the UK. That is equivalent to one professional for every 22,061 admissions, far below the recommended staffing levels (1:2230).
Health play professionals help children understand what is happening, prepare them for treatment and procedures, reduce fear and anxiety, and support them to cope with painful or unfamiliar experiences.
Starlight’s FOI also found that only 23 per cent of NHS Trusts and Health Boards across the UK have dedicated budgets to train health play professionals.
Out of area care
A Freedom of Information Request (FOI) has revealed that 26 Highland children are currently living elsewhere in the country because of a lack of suitable residential care provision here.
They can require this level of specialist care for various individual or family circumstances, not just for complex or additional needs.
Children have been placed in care facilities in Dumfries and Galloway, East Dunbartonshire, Fife, North Lanarkshire, Perth and Kinross, Renfrewshire, Stirling and West Lothian.
Too hot for surgery
More than 1,000 operations at NHS hospitals were cancelled because of the heat during record-breaking heatwaves in May and June, figures show.
Freedom of Information requests by climate and energy publication Carbon Brief reveal hip and knee replacements, heart, eye and skin cancer operations – and even a small number for “life threatening conditions” – were cancelled in the heat.
In total, 59 trusts responded with details of the impacts of heat on operations, which revealed 1,110 heat-related cancellations across the 17-day period covering May 22-28 and June 18-27.
Drone use
A Freedom of Information request asked whether Herefordshire Council “owned, leased, operated, or contracted the use of any drones for enforcement, regulatory, compliance, investigative, community safety, anti-social behaviour, environmental crime, planning enforcement, parking enforcement, or similar monitoring or evidential purposes” – and if so, how many.
The council said drone uses include investigating environmental incidents, monitoring trading standards and repairs on council-owned buildings, highways inspections, and “assisting homelessness outreach teams with welfare”, the council said, adding the drones “aren’t deployed routinely”.
Separately, the council’s website lists 15 occasions so far this year it has deployed drones over residential areas in the county – mostly at travellers’ sites, legitimate or otherwise, to check for unauthorised encampments or dumped waste.
Relocating
NHS Shetland spent more than £602,000 in the last five years to support new recruits from the mainland.
New figures released to the Shetland Times through a Freedom of Information request show that a minimum of 75 people moved to Shetland from the mainland, with up to £8,000 of support available.
Abandoned e-bikes
London boroughs have seized at least 3,000 ebikes this year, a Guardian investigation has found, as hire companies face growing calls to stop bicycles littering streets and blocking pavements.
Local authorities across the capital have seized 3,393 hazardously parked or abandoned ebikes so far this year, 23% higher than the number seized during all of 2025.
Lime, the California-based bike rental company, accounted for more than 2,000 of the seizures this year, according to figures provided by 19 reporting authorities under a freedom of information request. The rival bike company Forest ranked second, at 978 seizures overall, followed by Voi at 103.
Council budgets
Councils are facing a multibillion pound funding gap as they struggle to balance the books, according to new research.
Unison said its study found that four out of every five councils across England, Scotland and Wales are still struggling financially despite modest improvements in local government finances.
Responses to Freedom of Information requests and financial plans from 368 local authorities showed that councils are forecasting a combined funding gap of almost £4 billion in 2027/28, rising to £7.1 billion by the following year.
Unanswered calls
Almost one in five calls to the medical advice line NHS 24 were abandoned without being answered over the last two years, with new figures also showing one person waited more than three-and-a-half hours simply for their call to be answered.
Figures released in response to a freedom of information request from the Scottish Liberal Democrats show that over the period April 2024 to June 2026 a total of 625,704 calls to the service were “discontinued” – 17% of all calls.
A caller looking for help waited three hours 39 minutes for a response in October 2025, with another caller the following month waiting three hours and 25 minutes.
Mice shut cafe
A mouse infestation was discovered at a major London hospital food premises after conditions were deemed to pose an “imminent risk to health”.
The incident took place at Whipps Cross University Hospital in Leytonstone, where Waltham Forest Council issued a Hygiene Emergency Prohibition Notice under the Food Safety and Hygiene (England) Regulations 2013.
This resulted in the immediate closure of the food premises and a drop in its hygiene rating to zero.
The notice, obtained following a Freedom of Information request, described the conditions as posing an “imminent risk to health”. It ordered the eradication of the mouse infestation and required extensive pest control and cleaning.
Cannabis farm fires
Incidents attended by the emergency services at suspected or confirmed cannabis farms have risen 218% in the past decade, with landlords facing millions of pounds in damages, according to a new study by Zurich UK.
The report shows fire and rescue services were called out to attend incidents at suspected or identified cannabis farms 5o times last year, slightly down on the 54 call-outs for similar incidents in 2024 and up from 17 call-outs in 2015.
Zurich compiled the report using freedom of information data obtained from 21 fire and rescue services.
Cosmetic treatments
London councils have received hundreds of complaints related to businesses carrying out potentially harmful aesthetic procedures, according to new data.
Freedom of Information requests by VIP Italia have revealed that 117 complaints linked to non-surgical cosmetic procedures were made to London borough councils between January 2021 and May 2026.
The complaints related to clinics and practitioners providing treatments such as dermal fillers, botulinum toxin injections, and non-surgical Brazilian Butt Lifts – with some even alleging injury or receiving hospital treatment.
Inheritance tax
More than 5,000 estates paid over £1 billion in inheritance tax on lifetime gifts between 2020/21 and 2023/24, according to new Freedom of Information (FOI) figures.
In 2023/24 alone, 1,390 estates paid £315 million in inheritance tax on lifetime gifts, an average of £226,000 per estate, the figures obtained from HMRC by financial advice firm NFU Mutual showed.
There are annual inheritance tax gift allowances, such as the annual exemption and small gifts allowance. You can also give away any amount of money and no inheritance tax is owed if you die seven or more years after making the gift, but, if you die within seven years after making the gift, it may be liable for IHT.
Bus lanes
Based on Freedom of Information requests submitted to 77 councils and transport authorities across England, Scotland and Wales, MoneySuperMarket showed that more than £37.7 million in bus lane fines were handed out across Great Britain in the first half of 2026 alone.
Navigating Birmingham can be tough for any level of driver—with Brum holding the sixth-highest total PCNs issued for bus lane infringements between Jan and June 2026. 51,687 fines were issued to Birmingham drivers, while Birmingham Council collected the third-highest revenue from fines (over £2.1 million).
Fan no shows
Data obtained via a Freedom of Information request from Newham Council’s turnstile software has revealed an average discrepancy of nearly 13,000 unoccupied seats per Premier League fixture at the London Stadium last season.
The council’s turnstile logs show that West Ham’s published ticketing figures differ hugely from the number of supporters who actually entered the stadium.
West Ham reported an average of 62,455 tickets sold across 19 home league matches, representing a 99.92% capacity fill rate.
However, the actual average attendance was 49,567, meaning the stadium was occupied to just 78.66% of capacity.
App not working
Scotrail has received thousands of complaints relating to its new mobile app since its chaotic rollout in July.
The figures come as problems with the app continue more than six weeks after its introduction, with ScotRail forced to apologise again on Monday after customers faced issues purchasing tickets.
Figures obtained by The National under freedom of information laws reveal ScotRail had received 3141 complaints classified as relating to the app by August 9 – just 10 days after it launched.
Cat enforcement
Cat AT rescuer and volunteer at Harvey’s Army animal charity, Joan Lamb, has said that the law stating that all cats in England must be registered on a database is not being complied with.
The law was passed in 2024 by the Conservative Government, and states that: “Owners must ensure their cat is microchipped before they reach the age of 20 weeks, with their contact details stored and kept up to date in an approved pet microchipping database.
Ms Lamb said she made an FOI (freedom of information) request to Blackpool Council and was told they do not carry out any enforcement action in relation to non-chipped cats, despite this being a legal requirement from June 2024.
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