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FOI Friday: Thefts from churches, Christmas cuts, Coventry’s oldest driver...
Tax relief for independent schools < Croydon Advertiser CROYDON’S independent schools received £6.8 million in business rates relief over the last six years. Figures obtained by the Advertiser...
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FOI Friday: Roadworks hell, hidden art, naughty nurses and bedblocking patients
Plagues of roadworks < Get Surrey Dismay has been expressed over a ‘plague’ of roadworks on a stretch between Bramley and Guildford in the past three years. Information obtained under the Freedom...
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FOI Friday: Booze and benefits, not-so-free Christmas parking, councils...
Council makes parking money despite offering free parking < Eastern Daily Press North Norfolk District Council has defended its publicity attempts after it emerged that it collected more than...
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FOI FRIDAY: Clown crimes, daily A&E visitors, attacks on buses and pauper...
Sexual exploitation within a police force < Birmingham Mail Three West Midlands Police officers abused their position of authority by sexually exploiting underage children in the last two years....
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FOI Friday: Bouncing babies, sex offence tickings off and pensioners on drugs
Some very bouncing babies < Huddersfield Examiner Hundreds of Huddersfield’s bouncing babies are tipping the scales more than 2lbs above the national average. Figures reveal about 100 babies per...
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FOI Friday: Council credit cards, mental health beds crisis, schools with...
So, what are councils using credit cards for at the moment? < Bristol Post Taxpayers in Bristol have been footing the bill for council workers to stay in expensive hotels, eat at posh restaurants...
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FOI Friday: Jollies in Cannes, guilty police, empty homes, naughty soldiers...
So does a trip to MIPIM pay off? < Brixton Buzz £20,000 was taken by Lambeth Council from four property developers to help fund the trip to Cannes by four council employees. A Freedom of Information...
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FOI Friday: Full cemeteries, unsolved crimes, snooping coppers and accidents...
The social care crisis for councils < The Herald Councils face a mounting crisis with thousands of disabled people unable to meet their bills for social and personal care. According to figures...
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FOI Friday: Prisoner complaints, police redundancies, thefts from bars,...
‘Kebab crimes’ in Scarborough < Scarborough News There’s a saying that a pint and a fight are the ingredients to a great British night out, but an investigation has unearthed the shocking crimes...
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FOI Friday: Why FOI beats open data and 9 other stories made possible this...
The FOI request about theft of petrol from petrol stations is hardly a new one, but that doesn’t alter the fact it sums up why FOI trumps the principle of open data, from a journalistic perspective at...
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FOI Friday: The Tories who clearly love the Freedom of Information Act – and...
You don’t need Freedom of Information to expose a politician as a hypocrite. The Daily Mail proved that when it took a matter of hours to call out Chris Grayling after he attempted to ‘shame’ the...
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FOI FRIDAY: 10 FOI ideas for journalists is back!
Welcome to the return of FOI – a weekly look at FOI stories which are worth sharing (and in many cases, copying). As an added incentive to read on, this blog will also celebrate/shame those councils...
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FOI Friday: Councils happy to reveal councillors not paying tax, and readers...
Back again, a little later than planned, the latest look at how FOI is being used by the regional press to hold the great and sometimes good to account… The council which agrees you should know which...
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FOI Friday: School holidays, council houses, non-paying councillors (again)...
Asbesto in publicly-owned homes <Beyond the Pillars Blog Beyond the Pillars, which covers issues involving the North Ireland government, used FOI recently to find out how many homes owned by the NI...
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FOI Friday: The stories made possible thanks to FOI in September 2016
A look at some of the stories made possible thanks to FOI laws in the UK – most of which can easily be replicated elsewhere… Ambulances called to one house 500 times < Kent Online Ambulance crews...
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FOI Friday: 10 stories waiting to be uncovered near you
An increasingly infrequent look at stories being made possible thanks to FOI £120,000 of fines for parking in disabled bays < Shropshire Star Drivers have been fined more than £120,000 by...
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FOI Friday: Criminals applying to be taxi drivers, citizenship test failures...
Would be taxi drivers and their criminal convictions < Lincolnshire Live Sex offenders who have assaulted children in the past have applied to become taxi drivers in Lincolnshire, new data has...
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FOI Friday: The power of FOI, pesky press officers, school place race and...
The power of FOI confirmed in Essex You don’t have to look far to find critics of the Freedom of Information Act within journalistic circles. It’s not a replacement for investigative journalism, it’s...
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FOI Friday: Brexit and the NHS, NHS secrecy, police secrecy and street-level...
Brexit continues to be a happy hunting ground for information-hungry journalists … even if the story once again appears to be about the reluctance of those in power to actually talk about their...
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FOI Friday: How the Local Democracy Reporter scheme is making the most of FOI
It’s just under a year since the contracts were awarded for the Local Democracy Reporting Service, the scheme funded by the BBC which is aiming to ensure more councils are covered in more depth. But...
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