UK Freedom of Information Blog

Extension of FOI Act to ACPO

2009-11-06T13:24:00.004Z

In a debate on the Policing and Crime Bill, Home Office minister Lord West of Spithead, confirmed that a Section 5 Order extending the FOI Act to the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) would be introduced early in the 2009-10 parliamentary session:

On 9 September the Government wrote to ACPO inviting it to outline any matters that it thought the Secretary of State should take into consideration before deciding whether it is appropriate to include it in a Section 5 order and asking for its views on the length of time that ACPO would need between making an order and its commencement. It is clearly important that any new body being brought within the scope of the Freedom of Information Act is given sufficient time to prepare, and that includes establishing a publication scheme and training staff so that they are adequately resourced to deal with requests. It is quite something to get all that in place, as I know from being in the Home Office.

The Government propose bringing forward the Section 5 order early in the 2009-10 Session and it is a requirement of the Freedom of Information Act that the order be debated in both Houses. As the noble Lord, Lord Skelmersdale, said, ACPO is a private company limited by guarantee and is not established by statute. It is, however, referred to in statute. Both ACPO and the APA are referred to in the Police Act 1996, for example, where Section 37A places a duty on the Secretary of State to consult both ACPO and the APA on strategic priorities. I hope that that clarifies the issue.

Read the Hansard here.

FOI Disclosure Stories October 2009

2009-11-03T11:47:00.000Z

Peers stop claiming discredited expenses - The Times 31/10/09
“A number of high-profile peers stopped claiming overnight allowances for attending the House of Lords after The Sunday Times began exposing colleagues who were abusing the expenses system. Lords Birt, Jay, Rees-Mogg and Richard were among those who ceased claiming overnight subsistence of up to £174 a night in May this year, according to documents released under freedom of information laws. On May 3, this newspaper first raised doubts about the Lords expenses system when it discovered that Baroness Uddin had claimed £180,000 on an empty flat that she said was her main home.”

Thousands of children on antidepressants - Telegraph.co.uk 30/10/09
“Prescriptions of the controversial drugs have increased rapidly with pills for attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder up by one third in two years and antidepressant use in children under 16 rising by six per cent, according to data obtained under the Freedom of Information Act 9 [by the Conservatives]. The figures show there were 420,000 prescriptions issued for ADHD medication to children under the age of 16 in 2007, meaning around 35,000 children were on the drugs in England. This is up by one third since 2005.”

UK home-school cases soar - Channel 4 27/10/09
“A freedom of information request uncovers evidence that more and more parents are giving up on state education… 134 local education authorities in England, Scotland and Wales replied to our freedom of information request. Of those with year-on-year trends, 103 - or 80 per cent - reported an increase in the number of children they knew were being home educated. And in those authorities with figures for the last five years, there's been an average increase of 61 per cent in the number of children being educated at home."

90% of dodgy MP exes waved through no questions asked - News of the World 17/10/09
“We can reveal House of Commons staff waved through more than 90 per cent of claims without even the most basic checks to ensure they were genuine… The Department of Resources admitted that in 2006-07 just seven per cent of claims were queried. In 2007-08 it was a paltry five per cent and in 2008-09, eight per cent.”

Unison lashes out at huge sums spent by councils on obstructing equal pay claims - HR 14/10/09
“Millions of pounds money is being spent on fighting legal battles to stop low-paid women winning equal pay, trade union Unison has claimed. Unison research of 50 councils found local authorities are spending up to £1.3 million each on private barristers' and solicitors' fees and up to £1.2 million on their own staff's time attempting to resist the fight for fair wages. Using the Freedom of Information Act, Unison also revealed more than £11.5 million has been spent to obstruct equal pay - a figure the union believes is ‘the tip of the iceberg'.”

Iraq bodyguard bill soars - Channel 4 09/10/09
“The cost of employing 'bodyguards' to protect officials in Iraq and Afghanistan has passed the £150 million mark, new figures reveal. The government payments - released after a Freedom of Information (FoI) by Channel 4 News online - show the huge increase in cost to the UK of trying to make sure rebuilding plans in both countries do not go off the rails. The disclosure shows £150 million has been soaked up by four firms in just three years."

New students still without funds - BBC 09/10/09
“Up to 175,000 students in the UK may still be waiting to receive their student loans and grants, a week after most courses started. Of the record one million students who applied for funding this year, 16% have not yet received any loans or grants. First years have been hardest hit, with just 72% of applications dealt with, details given under the Freedom of Information Act have revealed. The Student Loans Company blamed late applications and technical problems.”

Councils' agency spend revealed - BBC 09/10/09
“UNISON have revealed to the Politics Show that councils across the East Midlands are spending around £90 million on agency workers and £61 million on consultants. According to UNISON, Wellingborough Council has spent 13% of its staff budget on consultants. Leicester City Council has forked out £18 million on agency workers - 6.8% of their staff costs. The amount involved is almost twice as high as any other city in the East Midlands.”

The documents that revealed secret meetings between NHS and private sector - Pulse 07/10/09
“The NHS secretly courted private companies at a series of high-level meetings to encourage them to compete for the new wave of polyclinics and GP-led health centres, Pulse can reveal. Directors, chief executives and other senior figures from a who’s who of private health providers were invited to regular off-the-record briefings, held every six weeks, to get their advice on tendering and procurement of GP-led health centres and London’s polyclinics. Details of the meetings, at which no minutes were taken, emerged only this week after Pulse successfully won a nine-month appeal under the Freedom of Information Act.”

Elderly forced to sell homes to pay care costs - Channel 4 07/10/09
“Patients in some parts of the country are being forced to sell their homes to receive residential care, as councils neglect to use discretionary powers which would prevent such sales, it has been found. Almost 50 per cent of councils opted not to use these special powers in the past financial year - meaning families had to sell up - a series of Freedom of Information (FoI) requests to local authorities showed today.”

Social worker conduct cases take two years on average - Community Care 29/09/09
“The General Social Care Council took more than two years on average to process conduct cases that went to a full hearing from 2007-9. Figures released under the Freedom of Information Act have revealed that, on average, 789 days passed between the date of initial referral and the final outcome for cases that were concluded between April 2007 and March 2009. The finding comes with the GSCC's conduct system under intense scrutiny after a backlog of 203 unresolved cases – 21 of which involve public protection concerns – was identified in July..."

Tower blocks ‘potential disaster’ - BBC 28/09/09
“Councils across London may be risking the lives of thousands of residents - because hundreds of tower blocks have not been assessed for fire safety. A BBC London investigation has found at least 300 social housing high-rises have no valid fire check from their local authority - a criminal offence. Lambeth Council, the worst offender, has only carried out risk assessments on two of its 112 tower blocks… In July six people died during a fire at Lakanal House, a 12-storey block in Southwark now thought to have been unsafe.”
(See also: More ‘danger’ tower blocks found - BBC 30/09/09)

Family is paid £189,000 in housing benefit - The Times 03/10/09
“Some families have been paid almost £200,000 each in housing benefit to live in some of the country’s most expensive areas, figures released under the Freedom of Information Act show. The highest-paid include a family in Oxford who have received £189,694 since January 2004 for a seven-bedroom house. It costs the taxpayer £521 a week in rent. A similar total has been paid to a family in Camden, north London."

Regional

Full cost of repairs bill fiasco revealed - Waltham Forest Guardian 16/10/09
“More than £114,000 of taxpayers' money was spent on trying to overturn a legal ruling preventing the council's property manager from billing leaseholders for repair works, it has emerged. A response to a request made by leaseholder Mick McGough under the Freedom of Information act reveals that £114,652 was spent on fees including £3,445 on solicitors, £4,500 on junior counsel and £9,000 on a Queen's Counsel… Ascham Homes had billed hundreds of leaseholders up to £32,000 for works carried out under the Government's Decent Homes programme without properly consulting them.”

Asbestos in 400 schools across - North Wales Daily Post 06/10/09
“More than 400 schools are still waiting to have deadly asbestos removed from their buildings. Using the Freedom of Information Act, the Daily Post asked every council in North Wales to tell us how many schools contain asbestos and what was being done about it. They revealed 357 primary, secondary and special schools still have asbestos, including 115 in Gwynedd.”

Internal report highly critical of Mid Staffs hospital bosses - Birmingham Post 01/10/09
“An internal investigation into the conduct of the former chief executive of shamed Stafford Hospital, where at least 400 patients died unnecessarily due to cuts, concluded that there were ‘serious failings’ in his leadership. The Birmingham Post has gained access to the report into Martin Yeates’ performance, which Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust wanted to keep private, through the Freedom of Information Act."

Scotland

Secret nuclear swap is denied - The Press and Journal, Scotland 12/10/09
“The Scottish Government has been accused of turning the country into the world’s ‘nuclear dustbin’ amid claims foreign nuclear waste could be stored at a plant in the Highlands. Details released under freedom of information legislation have revealed more than 600 tonnes of the waste is to be kept in Scotland, despite promises by governments and the nuclear industry that it would be sent back to the countries from where it came. Records shows the government has secretly proposed to store waste at the Dounreay nuclear plant in Caithness, and that under a swap scheme, waste from Sellafield, Cumbria – which has been stored in a different form – will be returned instead.”

Fury after £25m paid out in Scots prisoner appeals - Daily Express 10/10/09
“Taxpayers have been hit with a £25million bill to help prisoners appeal against their convictions and make compensation claims over the past five years. Figures obtained under Freedom of Information laws reveal the Scottish Legal Aid Board awarded £20million for appeals against convictions or sentences. Convicted criminals have also been handed £4,074,000 to pursue compensation claims under European human rights laws between 2004 and September this year. The board made 2,210 payments to prisoners during that period, including 325 so far this year – more than double last year’s total of 115.”

Holyrood maintenance spend rises sevenfold - FM World 07/10/09
“The annual cost of maintenance at the Scottish Parliament building has increased sevenfold since it opened in 2004. In 2004 the total cost of planned and unscheduled maintenance at Holyrood was £133,796.52. By 2008 that figure had ballooned to £978,076.03. The figures were released under a freedom of information request.”

Most lenient judge freed child sex abuser and robbers - The Sunday Times 04/10/09
“A sheriff who allowed two robbers who committed knife attacks on strangers, a child sex offender, and two men who assaulted paramedics, to walk free, has topped a table of Scotland’s most lenient judges. In the past six years, Deirdre MacNeill QC has had five sentences that were challenged by the Crown Office and overturned on appeal. Data on all sentences passed by judges and sheriffs that were appealed against by the crown during that period was obtained by The Sunday Times under freedom of information legislation.”

Trump ‘threatened to sue’ over refusal to back golf resort - The Scottish Herald 4/10/09
“The American billionaire tycoon Donald Trump threatened to sue Aberdeenshire Council for failing to back his luxury golf resort, the Sunday Herald can reveal. Private correspondence released under freedom of information legislation shows that Trump’s lawyers accused the council of a ‘flawed decision-making process’ after it rejected the controversial development at the Menie Estate near Balmedie in 2007.”

Huge physiotherapy waiting list - The Press and Journal 02/10/09
“The Scottish Government came under fire yesterday after it emerged that more than 20,000 people across Scotland are on NHS waiting lists for physiotherapy… Information released under freedom of information laws showed that 3,661 people in the NHS Tayside area are waiting for treatment. Some 1,340 people are on NHS Highland waiting lists, 120 in Orkney and 127 in the Western Isles.”

Law graduates ‘being left on the scrapheap’ - Daily Express 28/09/09
“Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill has accused Scottish universities of neglecting the needs of law students after new figures revealed that just one in four will find jobs as solicitors when they graduate. Mr MacAskill hit out during a meeting with the Law Society of Scotland, which represents the interests of solicitors. [The minute of the meeting was disclosed under the FOI Act]"
(See also: Law scholars object to minister’s ‘selfish’ charge - Times Higher Education 30/09/09)

White House visitor records online

2009-11-02T13:23:00.002Z

As part of President Obama's commitment to transparency, the White House has begun providing records of visitors to the White House online.

In a statement announcing the policy on 4 September 09, the President said:

For the first time in history, records of White House visitors will be made available to the public on an ongoing basis. We will achieve our goal of making this administration the most open and transparent administration in history not only by opening the doors of the White House to more Americans, but by shining a light on the business conducted inside it. Americans have a right to know whose voices are being heard in the policymaking process.

The Voluntary Disclosure Policy is in full here.

Tribunal criticises ICO delays again

2009-10-26T12:44:00.002Z

The Information Tribunal has again criticised the Information Commissioner's Office for delay in investigating a Freedom of Information complaint. In Export Credits Guarantee Department v IC (EA/2009/0021), the Tribunal said:

Other matters

119. While not a matter that has any bearing on the issues we have to decide, we think it appropriate to comment on the inordinate delay by the Commissioner in this case. As detailed above, although the Commissioner informed ECGD of the complaint by letter dated 22 August 2006, and although FOE requested an update on 5 December 2006, it appears that no case officer was allocated to this complaint until May 2008. It then took a further nine months for the investigation to be concluded as the Decision Notice was not issued until 23 February 2009. There is a suggestion that the Commissioner was delaying commencing an investigation into this complaint pending the outcome of other cases involving KSA before this Tribunal.

120. However, in the Decision Notice, the Commissioner refers to this delay; “Regrettably, due to the heavy workload at the Commissioner’s office, the investigation into the complaint did not get underway until Spring 2008.” It is clear, therefore, that the delay was not pursuant to any policy to wait for the decision in another case but rather that no steps were taken to fulfil the Commissioner’s statutory duty under section 50 of FOIA until approximately 20 months had elapsed since the complaint was made.

121. Concerns have been raised by differently constituted Panels of this Tribunal that such inordinate delays seriously undermine the operation of FOIA. While we are not in a position to identify the cause, or causes, of the delay in this case, we consider that it was excessive and cannot properly be justified by the Commissioner. The delay has meant that this Appeal was not heard until four years after the request for information was made and CAAT has still not received the information that we consider it is entitled to. There do not appear to be any effective methods by which CAAT, or any other Requestor, could challenge the delay by the Commissioner and force him to act in a timely manner. This completely and unacceptably undermines the spirit of FOIA and the general right of public access to information held by public authorities.

The Tribunal dismissed the ECGD's appeal which involved a request by the Campaign Against Arms Trade for a copy of the ECGD Underwriting Committee's assessment of the Al Yamamah deal with Saudi Arabia.

The ICO ruled that the ECGD was correct to withhold some of the information under s.27 (international relations) and s.43 (commercial interests), but that although the exemption in s.36 was engaged, the public interest in maintaining the exemption did not outweigh the public interest in disclosure of the information. The ECGD appealed the ICO's decision on s.36.

The Tribunal concluded that the ICO was right to decide that the public interest in maintaining the exemption did not outweigh the public interest in disclosure:

"107. It therefore is our conclusion that there is significant public interest when a government department underwrites an "arms deal" with public money, in understanding how that decision is made, in the process of how a public authority reaches decisions of importance, and in understanding how a public authority approaches a decision involving KSA, including a situation where the Serious Fraud Office was conducting an investigation."

Earlier post 'Information Tribunal criticises ICO delays' is here.

Identity of person making a FOI request

2009-10-25T16:42:00.007Z

There was a short debate in the House of Lords on 15 October 2009 on the subject of whether the names of people making FOI requests should be disclosed to those about whom information has been requested:

Lord Dubs: To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will consider amending the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to give those individuals about whom information has been requested the right to know the names of individuals or organisations who have made such requests.

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Justice (Lord Bach): My Lords, the Government have no plans to amend legislation in this way. Disclosure of the names of individuals or organisations making requests about other individuals would have to be considered on a case-by-case basis under the Data Protection Act, just as personal data falling within the scope of a Freedom of Information request would be. However, any individual who is the subject of an FoI request can make a subject access request, an SAR, under Section 7 of the Data Protection Act to find out the recipients of his or her personal data.

Lord Dubs: My Lords, I welcome my noble friend’s Answer. It is a lot better than I thought it could possibly be. As a supporter of the Freedom of Information Act, I ask my noble friend whether he is aware that many of us want it to work well but believe that it should work fairly. If investigative journalists are going to have a field day at our expense, maybe we should know who they are.

Lord Bach also referred to the issue of requesters using pseudonyms to make requests:

I remind the noble Lord that requesters, those who request, are required to give their name when making a request. That is a requirement of Section 8 of the Freedom of Information Act. If it is thought that a pseudonym is being used to shield his or her identity, it is possible to avoid the request by considering it vexatious.

However, this contradicts what the minister himself said during the FOI Bill's report stage in the House of Lords on 14 November 2000:

Lord Bach: My Lords, the Internet age has dawned. The Freedom of Information Bill makes provision for an application to be purpose blind. It requires that an applicant must apply in writing, which includes any electronic application, and provide an address. These are commonsense provisions which are necessary to ensure that a public authority can carry out its statutory duty to communicate information to that applicant. The Bill assumes that an applicant will wish to give his real name, but nothing requires him or her to do so or to use any particular name. He can call himself Father Christmas, or even Ralph Lucas, if he desires. In any event, the name is not relevant, as long as the information provided is sufficient to identify the applicant for the purpose of communicating information.

BBC4 Law in Action on the impact of the FoI Act

2009-10-21T13:02:00.003+01:00

Supposed to create a new age of openness in government, the Act forced all public bodies to disclose information when requested. How has it been used over the last five years?

The programme will be repeated on Thurs 22 Oct at 20.00 pm or you can listen to it on iPlayer
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/law_in_action/default.stm

FOI webcast 13 Oct 2009

2009-10-12T12:14:00.001+01:00

Ibrahim Hasan is doing a free webcast on the latest developments in Freedom of Information Law on:

13th October 2009 at 10am for 30 minutes

You can listen, watch and ask questions via your computer. All you need is a broadband internet connection and some speakers or headphones to listen to the audio.

The slides are displayed on the screen and you can email your questions during the webcast as well as leave your feedback at the end. It's a fun and effective way to learn without leaving the comfort of your office.

You can subscribe for free to the Act Now Information and Surveillance Law Update Webcast series below:

http://www.brighttalk.com/webcasts/6527/attend

Full more information see also:

http://www.informationlaw.org.uk/page21.htm
http://www.actnow.org.uk/content/50

Court of Session rules no right to request copies of documents under FOI(S)A

2009-10-08T11:43:00.007+01:00

The Court of Session has ruled that the FOI (Scotland) Act provides a right of access to information, not copies of actual documents. In doing so, the Court rejected the argument that a request for a copy of a document was a request for information to be supplied in a preferred form.

In this case the requesters, MacRoberts solicitors, had made clear they wanted copies of the actual notices rather than the information contained in them.

In allowing the two appeals brought by Glasgow and Dundee city councils, the Court also said the requests made by MacRoberts were not valid requests under the Act since they were made by an agent acting on behalf of an unidentified client. In situations where a request is made by an agent, the Court said the client was the true applicant, and in accordance with section 8(1)(b) should therefore be named.

A report in the Sunday Herald said the Scottish Information Commissioner was concerned by the ruling is considering whether to appeal to the Supreme Court.

The judges' decision states:

We can summarise our conclusions as follows:

1. The requests were invalid in that they were not requests for "information" within the meaning of the Act.

2. The requests were in addition invalid in that they did not disclose the name of the applicant, namely the second respondents.

3. The Commissioner erred in reaching his decisions on the basis that copies of statutory notices constituted "information" within the meaning of the Act.

4. The Commissioner erred in reaching his decision in the Glasgow case on the basis that a preference expressed by the applicant in terms of section 11 was relevant to the application of section 25.

5. We question whether, in any event, a request for copies of specified documents falls within the scope of section 11, but we do not require to express a concluded opinion on the point.

6. The Commissioner further erred, in relation to section 25, in failing to proceed on the basis that information which is made available in accordance with an authority's publication scheme, any payment required being specified in, or determined in accordance with, the scheme, is deemed to be reasonably obtainable.

7. The Commissioner further erred, in relation to section 25(1), in failing to take into
consideration the nature and characteristics of the applicant.

8. The Commissioner failed to comply with his duty to act fairly in reaching his decisions, in relation to section 33(1)(b), in both the Glasgow case and the Dundee case.

9. The Commissioner's decision in the Glasgow case was, in addition, irrational in that it dealt with the contentions in respect of section 12 and section 25 on inconsistent bases.

In these circumstances, both appeals must be allowed.

The full judgment is here.

Right to inspect audit documents trumps commercial confidentiality

2009-10-01T16:01:00.009+01:00

The High Court has issued an important decision on the right of electors under section 15(1) of the Audit Commission Act 1998 to inspect and make copies of certain documents relating to the council's accounts at the time of the annual audit.

Mr Dowen had applied to Nottinghamshire Council to inspect and take copies of documents relating to an £850m waste management contract between the Council and Veolia. The disputed documents comprised schedules to the contract and monthly invoices submitted to the Council by Veolia, which Veolia sought to prevent the Council from making available for inspection.

The issue before the Court was whether the documents fell within the category of "books, deeds, contracts, bills, vouchers and receipts" "relating to" "the accounts to be audited".

Veolia argued that a wide interpretation of s.15(1) would lead to confidential information being disclosed. However, Mr Justice Cranston stated:

The concern about commercial confidentiality I can well understand...But the plain fact is that there is no duty to keep commercial confidentiality in section 15...In my view the express provision for confidentiality in section 15(3) in the case of personal information suggests that commercial confidentiality is to be ignored in the interpretive exercise. The reality is that in recent times Parliament has addressed the issue of confidentiality in relation to section 15 and has not considered it necessary to extend it to commercial cases such as the present.

He concluded:

Accounts are not defined but the 1998 Act indicates that they are the record of the Council’s financial activity over a period and of the financial position at a particular time. The statement of accounts is a summary of the accounts. In my view it is plain that each of the disputed documents relate to the Council’s accounts as that phrase is to be construed in its statutory context. In the result Mr Dowen is entitled to inspect and copy these documents.

Mr Dowen was represented by Friends of the Earth. The FoE press release is here.
The judgement itself is here.

Information Commissioner & Tribunal Decisions courses

2009-10-01T12:01:00.003+01:00

The Campaign for Freedom of Information is running two half-day training courses on 'Information Commissioner & Tribunal Decisions - what do they mean in practice?'

London 30 November 2009
Birmingham 3 December 2009

The courses, which are aimed at those with a good working knowledge of the legislation, highlight the key developments in the way the FOI Act's exemptions, public interest test and procedural requirements are being interpreted.

The courses will cover issues such as: "fair" and "unfair" disclosures of personal data; the FOI/EIR borderline; the commercial interests exemption & other exemptions; where the public interest line is being drawn; vexatious requests and the cost limit, advice & assistance and other administrative provisions.

Significant discounts available for more than one booking from the same organisation.

For further information:
http://www.cfoi.org.uk/pdf/foidecisions_nov09.pdf

FOI Disclosure Stories 21 - 27 September 2009

2009-09-30T12:07:00.009+01:00

150 teachers rapped for sexual misconduct - ITN 26/09/09
“Almost 150 teachers in England have been sacked or disciplined for sexual misconduct in the last two years, new figures show.  Some 49 of the 56 teachers who lost their jobs were reported to the police, while a further 92 faced disciplinary action, according to figures released under the Freedom of Information Act.  "

'NHS Cashing In On Hospital Car Parking' - Sky News 26/09/09
“NHS hospitals raked in more than £110m in car parking charges last year, figures obtained by the Liberal Democrats show. The figures, disclosed under the Freedom of Information Act, show visitors were hit with £84m in parking fees while NHS staff forked out £28m. Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge made the most out of any hospital in England - £2.8m in all.”

PCTs launching propaganda drive to promote swine flu jab - Healthcare Republic 25/09/09
“Two-thirds of PCTs are launching communication plans to persuade GPs and other health workers to take up the swine flu jab. However, almost half have yet to decide which groups of health workers will receive the jabs, information obtained by GP under the Freedom of Information Act shows. Of 33 PCTs that responded, 22 said they would be undertaking work to encourage health professionals and those in at-risk groups to take up the vaccine… PCTs will also need to make decisions about which health workers should be included in local plans. But just 16 PCTs said they had decided which staff would be vaccinated.”

NHS hospital equipment 'under-used' - Health Service Journal 25/09/09
“Hospitals are failing to make use of sophisticated and expensive treatment technology, the Taxpayers’ Alliance has claimed. The group analysed figures obtained under a freedom of information request from 187 English NHS trusts. They claim the research shows that use of linear accelerators, devices used to treat cancer, fell well below expected standards. The National Radiotherapy Advisory Group recommends 8,000 doses per machine per year, but the research revealed an average number of 7,191."

What is a student worth? - SecEd Magazine 24/09/09
“Headteachers have this week blasted the ‘staggering discrepancies’ in the way schools are funded, and have called for an overhaul of the system. The call has been sparked after a Freedom of Information request by David Laws, the Liberal Democrat education spokesman, revealed that as many as 2,000 schools could face a deficit this year because the government’s Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) fails to cater for their needs. In England, the national average funding per-pupil across local authorities is £4,218 a year. However, this varies from £3,728 per pupil in Leicestershire to £7,603 in the City of London.”

Britain goes soft on kid sex perverts - The Sun 23/09/09
“...more than a quarter of child abusers are let off with a caution by cops. The shock figures emerged in responses by 33 police forces to Freedom of Information demands by The Sun. In total, 8,043 people who committed sexual and physical abuse offences against kids were charged in the year to April, while 2,764 were given a caution."
(Read the Police's reaction at: Police Hit Back At 'Leniency' Accusations - Police Oracle 23/09/09)

Labour ministers accused of being 'soft' on alcohol warnings - Daily Mail 22/09/09
“Ministers have been accused of colluding with the alcohol lobby to water down new warning labels on drinks. Plans to warn mothers-to-be that alcohol 'can harm your baby' were rejected in favour of telling women to 'avoid alcohol when pregnant'… Department of Health papers, which officials fought to keep secret, show how it opted for the milder warning. The document said one of the 'pros' was this message had been 'provisionally accepted by the alcohol industry'.”

Third of rape claims 'unrecorded' - BBC 21/09/09
“Hundreds of rape claims reported to police across the UK don't end up in official crime records, figures obtained by Newsbeat show. Answers to questions placed to every police force in the UK under freedom of information laws revealed variations in numbers of rape crimes removed from formal databases in a process known as ‘no-criming.’ Between April 2007 and March 2008 there were 2701 claims of rape in London but only 1847 were recorded as crimes. Four-hundred-and-sixty were no crimed and deleted from the records, 396 were never put on the books in the first place. In Northumbria there were 382 reports of rape, but 172 of those never made it into official Home Office figures."

Regional

Wrexham council made £83,000 from sunbeds, BMA calls for ban - Daily Post 27/09/09
“Doctors’ leaders demanding curbs on the sunbed industry revealed Wrexham council made more than £83,000 in five years from tanning machines in its leisure centres... Now the BMA is calling for the immediate removal of all sunbeds from local authority owned premises and for tighter regulation of the sunbed industry… Wrexham council runs three leisure centres and has one sunbed at Waterworld, two at Queensway and two at Plas Madoc. It reduced the overall number from seven to five and announced that all would be removed by April next year.”

Scotland

Big rise in kids clothing bill - Dundee Evening Telegraph 25/09/09
“Dundee City Council has paid out hundreds of thousands of pounds to cash-strapped families to clothe their children this year... Figures released under Freedom of Information legislation show that while there are still seven months left in the current financial year, a total of £283,800 has already been spent on back-to-school grants. A total of £303,375 was awarded to struggling families for the whole of 2007-08, while £316,285 was awarded during the preceding financial year.”

ICO Enforcement Action Log (partially) disclosed

2009-09-25T14:16:00.004+01:00

The Information Commissioner's Office has released a version of its 'Enforcement Action Log' (aka the 'Watch List') which records cases where the ICO's Enforcement Team is engaged with a public authority because of systemic, repeated or serious non-compliance with the FOI Act or EIRs. The request for the log was made via the whatdotheyknow site.

The released version does not contain details of open enforcement cases - the ICO has cited s.31(1)(g) and s.31(2)(c) to withhold these.

The ICO's response to the request states:

Typical issues which may make such engagement necessary are:

- serious or repeated failures to meet the requirements of section 10 (1)

- regular and / or unwarranted extensions to the time for compliance (e.g. Public Interest Test), with particular emphasis on those which exceed the Commissioner’s guidance

- serious or repeated failures to issue refusals notices which comply with section 17

- regular and / or unwarranted extensions to the timeframe for internal reviews, with particular emphasis on those which exceed the Commissioner’s guidance

- failure to have an internal review procedure in place, or the failure to operate that procedure in accordance with the recommendations of the section 45 Code of Practice

- internal review procedures of more than one stage

- repeated or serious application of blanket, or obviously inappropriate exemptions (or exceptions)

- repeated failure to engage with the ICO’s investigations, or repeated delays in that engagement

- repeated failure to explain why exemptions (or exceptions) apply

- repeated failures to explain the balance of public interest when qualified exemptions (or exceptions) have been applied

- evidence that the authority is failing to take its responsibilities seriously

- record management failures (section 46 Code of Practice)

- evidence that an authority does not have a sufficient understanding of the Act, the EIR or the Codes of Practice

When patterns of repeated or systemic incidences of poor practice are identified, the Enforcement Team consider whether intervention is appropriate. The team may also intervene in a single case, provided the issues are sufficiently serious. Such intervention is recorded in the
enforcement action log.

Hat tip to Matt Davis who covered this on FOI News.

FOI Statistics Apr-June 2009

2009-09-24T11:14:00.002+01:00

The quarterly statistics bulletin on FOI implementation within central government have been published for the period April to June 2009.

Executive summary
Departments of State reported receiving 5,769 “non-routine” information requests during the second quarter of 2009 (Q2). Other monitored bodies received 4,195 requests. Across all monitored bodies, a total of 9,964 requests were received, of which 92 per cent had been processed at the time of monitoring. This includes 189 requests handled under the amended Environmental Information Regulations (EIRs) which came into force on 1 January 2005. [see Table 1]

The 9,964 requests across all monitored bodies received in the second quarter of 2009 is 12 per cent greater than the 8,865 received during the corresponding quarter of 2008. [see Table A]

During Q2 of 2009, 86 per cent of all monitored bodies’ requests (excluding those “on hold” or lapsed) were “in time”, in that they were processed within the statutory deadline* or were subject to a permitted deadline extension. This figure is the same as in the previous quarter but slightly lower than in the corresponding quarter of 2008. [see Table 2 and Table B] Of all “resolvable” requests received during Q2 of 2009 (i.e. requests where it was possible to make a substantive decision on whether to release the information being sought), 55 per cent were granted in full, slightly lower than in the previous quarter. [see Table 3 and Table C]

Quarterly statistics - April to June 2009 (Pdf 0.18mb 38 pages)

FOI Disclosure Stories 14 - 20 September 2009

2009-09-21T17:30:00.003+01:00

MPs accused of failing to pay their Commons food bills - The Times 17/09/09
“British MPs have run up unpaid bills in the House of Commons' subsidised restaurants and bars totalling almost £140,000. More than half of all MPs - 329 of them - have outstanding debts averaging £419 for wining and dining on their Commons tabs, according to data released under the Freedom of Information Act.”

Government pays 26 million pounds for bank protection advice - Reuters 15/09/09
“The government has paid banks, lawyers and other advisers 26.5 million pounds for work related to setting up its scheme to insure risky assets held by two banks. Investment banks Citi (C.N) and Credit Suisse (CSGN.VX) and asset manager BlackRock (BLK.N) were among seven firms to be paid for advice, according to a Treasury response to a Freedom of Information request by Reuters. Part-nationalised Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS.L) and Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY.L) plan to insure about 585 billion pounds of their risky assets through the government's asset protection scheme (APS.L).”

Regional

£1.6m 'wasted' on scrapped road upgrade - Gazette News 16/09/09
“A TOTAL of £1.67million of taxpayers’ cash was spent on plans for a dual carriageway on the A120, which were later scrapped… The £500million proposal was axed in July, after the East of England Regional Assembly and East of England Development Agency said it was unaffordable.”

BBC Wales bosses' costs published - BBCi 15/09/09
“The salaries and expenses of some of BBC Wales' most senior managers have been made available following a freedom of information (FOI) request… Salary ranges for board members included: Menna Richards, director, BBC Wales - salary band £160,000 to £190,000; Gareth Powell, chief operating officer - salary band £100,000 to £130,000…”

Government officials overpaid by £1.5m - Yorkshire Post 14/09/09
“Officials at a Government department have been overpaid more than £1.5m, it has emerged. In one case, a civil servant nearly doubled their salary. The unnamed official at the Ministry of Justice was handed an extra £18,500, on top of annual earnings of £22,000. Freedom of Information Act requests revealed more than 1,000 staff at the department were overpaid a total of £1,522,995 over the last three years – but more than half that total will never be paid back.”

Scotland

NHS ‘spending millions’ on equipment for obese patients - The Herald 15/09/09
“Health boards are spending millions of pounds on special equipment to treat obese patients, the Liberal Democrats have claimed. Figures obtained under Freedom of Information showed that health boards had spent almost £4.4 million in recent years on items such as extra wide beds, wider bedside chairs and wider wheelchairs… The figures showed health boards have spent more than £1.3 million on extra wide beds suitable for obese patients, while bosses at NHS Fife spent £79,500 on larger tables for operating theatres.”

Releasing ministerial letter on NHS contract will not limit free and frank discussions

2009-09-17T12:44:00.004+01:00

ICO press release
17 September 2009

The Information Commissioner has ordered the Department of Health to release a letter from a former Treasury minister concerning the NHS consultant contract. The Department of Health received a request under the Freedom of Information Act for the business case on the consultants’ contract which it provided to HM Treasury in 2002. The requester also asked for a copy of HM Treasury’s response.

...

The Information Commissioner agrees that the exemption applies. Nonetheless, the letter from a Treasury minister, which contains the response to the business case, must be released on public interest grounds. The Information Commissioner is not persuaded by the view that disclosure would affect the frankness and candour with which ministers would debate policy issues in the future. The Decision Notice also highlights that this contract is no longer a ‘live’ issue, but that there has been significant public interest in whether the contract has delivered value for money.

Full ICO press release here.

Conservatives launch proposals to strengthen independence and powers of Information Commissioner

2009-09-16T10:29:00.004+01:00

Shadow Justice Secretary Dominic Grieve and shadow Justice Minister Eleanor Laing are today (16 Sept) launching a policy paper Reversing the Rise of the Surveillance State. The paper, which includes 11 measures to protect personal privacy and hold government to account, also includes proposals to strengthen the powers and independence of the Information Commissioner:

The Information Commissioner has proved one of the bulwarks against the rise of the surveillance state, providing early warnings and technical advice on the growing concerns over data security. However, the current role is limited and could be strengthened to ensure the Information Commissioner has the necessary independence and powers to hold government to account. In due course, we will also be examining the Information Commissioner’s role in overseeing the Freedom of Information system, in light of our commitment to radical reform to achieve far greater transparency in public sector spending and wider governance.

At this stage, we propose that the following reforms:

• The Information Commissioner will be appointed by Parliament rather than the Ministry of Justice.

If the Information Commissioner is to be an effective guardian of the public interest against privacy intrusions by government, he cannot be appointed by government.

We will consult on the detail of the appointment process and organisational structure, based on the operational experience of analogous models including the Electoral Commission, Parliamentary Ombudsman and other bodies.

This would bring appointment of the UK Information Commissioner into line with that of the Scottish Information Commissioner, who is appointed by the Scottish Parliament. It would also implement a recommendation from the Justice Committee, which has recommended in two reports that the Information Commissioner become directly responsible to, and funded by, Parliament to protect the independence of the role.

UPDATED: Dominic Grieve's speech is here.

US Clean Water Act violated 500,000 times, FOI request reveals

2009-09-14T14:52:00.010+01:00

Clean water laws are neglected, at a cost in suffering
The New York Times, 13 Sept 2009

Almost four decades ago, Congress passed the Clean Water Act to force polluters to disclose the toxins they dump into waterways and to give regulators the power to fine or jail offenders. States have passed pollution statutes of their own. But in recent years, violations of the Clean Water Act have risen steadily across the nation, an extensive review of water pollution records by The New York Times found.

In the last five years alone, chemical factories, manufacturing plants and other workplaces have violated water pollution laws more than half a million times. The violations range from failing to report emissions to dumping toxins at concentrations regulators say might contribute to cancer, birth defects and other illnesses.
...
The Times obtained hundreds of thousands of water pollution records through Freedom of Information Act requests to every state and the E.P.A., and compiled a national database of water pollution violations that is more comprehensive than those maintained by states or the E.P.A. (For an interactive version, which can show violations in any community, visit www.nytimes.com/toxicwaters.)

In addition, The Times interviewed more than 250 state and federal regulators, water-system managers, environmental advocates and scientists.

That research shows that an estimated one in 10 Americans have been exposed to drinking water that contains dangerous chemicals or fails to meet a federal health benchmark in other ways.
...
The Times’s research also shows that last year, 40 percent of the nation’s community water systems violated the Safe Drinking Water Act at least once, according to an analysis of E.P.A. data. Those violations ranged from failing to maintain proper paperwork to allowing carcinogens into tap water. More than 23 million people received drinking water from municipal systems that violated a health-based standard.

In some cases, people got sick right away. In other situations, pollutants like chemicals, inorganic toxins and heavy metals can accumulate in the body for years or decades before they cause problems. Some of the most frequently detected contaminants have been linked to cancer, birth defects and neurological disorders.

Records analyzed by The Times indicate that the Clean Water Act has been violated more than 506,000 times since 2004, by more than 23,000 companies and other facilities, according to reports submitted by polluters themselves. Companies sometimes test what they are dumping only once a quarter, so the actual number of days when they broke the law is often far higher. And some companies illegally avoid reporting their emissions, say officials, so infractions go unrecorded.
...
Some violations are relatively minor. But about 60 percent of the polluters were deemed in “significant noncompliance” — meaning their violations were the most serious kind, like dumping cancer-causing chemicals or failing to measure or report when they pollute.

Finally, the Times’s research shows that fewer than 3 percent of Clean Water Act violations resulted in fines or other significant punishments by state officials. And the E.P.A. has often declined to prosecute polluters or force states to strengthen their enforcement by threatening to withhold federal money or take away powers the agency has delegated to state officials.

Full NY Times story here.

FOI Disclosure Stories 7 -13 September 2009

2009-09-14T11:57:00.002+01:00

Lobby forces details out of FSA - Environmental Health News 10/09/09
“The Food Standards Agency has been forced to publish details of a presentation made by fast-food giant McDonald’s as part of a campaign to change guidance on burger cooking times following a challenge under the Freedom of Information Act. Guidelines issued by the chief medical officer in 1998 state that fast-food burgers should be cooked at 70ºC for at least two minutes, or an equivalent time and temperature combination. US guidance allows for much shorter cooking times… McDonald’s made a presentation in 2006 on the case for reducing cooking times…”

How PCTs use undercover 'mystery shoppers' to assess GPs - Pulse 09/09/09
“Primary care trusts are aggressively ramping up use of ‘mystery shoppers’ as a way of assessing local GP services, with some throwing tens of thousands of pounds at undercover projects... Information obtained under the Freedom of Information Act from 110 PCTs shows one in three have either already used mystery shoppers to assess GPs, or are likely to do so shortly. Trusts are employing patients or using PCT staff to carry out covert checks, with one spending £25,000 on undercover checks over six months.”

Britons' Torture Claims Ignored By London - Sky News 09/09/09
“Foreign Office emails, obtained by Sky News, have revealed officials failed to act after two British men claimed to have been tortured and forced to confess to murder. The correspondence, released under the Freedom of Information Act, shows that officials took months to follow up the claims against Pakistani police… The disclosure of the internal messages contradicts claims by the FCO earlier this year that officials had 'actively sought' to raise the allegations with Pakistani authorities.”

Critically ill patients lack hospital bed - The Times 08/09/09
“Almost 2,000 critically ill patients were discharged early from NHS intensive care units last year because of a shortage of beds, the Conservatives have claimed. Data from eight out of ten hospital trusts in England suggests that a further 20,000 patients had their discharge from intensive care delayed because there were no suitable beds in other wards to which they could be transferred.”

Regional

University Press in £330k expenses row - Cambridge Evening News 11/09/09
“Seven directors at Cambridge University Press clocked up nearly £330,000 in travel and ‘entertaining expenses - in the same year the firm laid off around 50 staff. Figures released under the Freedom of Information Act show 2008/09 spending by the chief executive and Press board came to £294,439 for travel and £33,911 for entertaining.”

NIO 'abandoned' victims' Libya compensation bid - Belfast News Letter 10/09/09
“Secretary of State Shaun Woodward's department told the Government that it should not support Ulster victims' fight for compensation from Libya despite the Secretary of State's responsibility to represent Northern Ireland's interests to the Cabinet. Foreign Office files released to the News Letter under the Freedom of Information Act reveal that both the Foreign Office and the Northern Ireland Office (NIO), decided that the Government should not even diplomatically ask Libya to compensate its UK victims, the majority of whom are from the Province.”

Delayed: platforms for Waterloo commuters will not arrive until 2014 - London Evening Standard 10/09/09
“Commuters will have to wait until 2014 before the former Eurostar platforms at Waterloo station are adapted for suburban trains, it emerged today. Ministers came under fire for ‘dithering’ as the Department for Transport revealed in a Freedom of Information document that it would be years before the former Waterloo International was adapted for commuter use. When the Eurostar terminal closed two years ago, the Government said that at least one of its five platforms would be in use by last December.”

Scotland

Shocking scale of cocaine use in Scotland revealed as cops bust boy aged 11 for possession – The Daily Record 08/09/09
“A boy aged 11 has been arrested in possession of cocaine, the Record can reveal. The shock case highlights an alarming boom in the drug's use in Scotland. New figures confirm the number of people arrested for cocaine possession in Strathclyde more than doubled between 2004-5 and last year - from 674 to 1751.”

Essex Police criticised for lack of engagement with ICO investigation

2009-09-11T11:22:00.005+01:00

Essex Police have been strongly criticised by the Information Commissioner over their handling of a request and lack of engagement with the Commissioner's Office during its investigation of the case:

"During the course of his investigation, the Commissioner has met with resistance in his attempts to understand the public authority's reasons for invoking section 12 [the cost limit]. The public authority has appeared unwilling or unable to provide the details requested or to meet the timescales for response set out in the Commissioner's letters. The Commissioner does not consider the public authority's approach in this case to be particularly co-operative, or within the spirit of the Act. As such he will be monitoring the public authority's future engagement with his office and would hope to see improvements in this regard."

The force was also criticised for destroying requested information before the appeal process had been fully exhausted - the notice states it "may have been destroyed after the public authority became aware of the Commissioner's investigation" - for taking five months to complete an internal review and for failing to provide the requester with adequate advice and assistance.

See Decision Notice FS50143930

Written Answers: ICO investigations involving complaints from MPs

2009-09-10T17:10:00.006+01:00

Mr. Gordon Prentice: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many hon. Members have referred responses to requests under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to the Information Commission in each of the last three years; and in each case how many such referrals were not resolved after 12 months of consideration. [287999]

Mr. Wills: The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is the independent authority responsible for enforcing the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

9 Sep 2009 : Column 2025W
Information about the numbers of complaints referred by hon. Members to the ICO and the time taken to resolve them is set out as follows. However, it should be noted that this information was identified on the basis of complaints made from a respondent address of the Palace of Westminster. It does not include referrals made by hon. Members from their constituency or other address or from MEPs or MSPs.

Number of hon. Members Total number of cases Resolved in over 12 months

The ICO is committed to resolving cases as efficiently as possible, and is improving its closure rates despite large increases in the volume of case receipts since the introduction of the Act.

This information was provided by the ICO.

House of Commons Hansard Written Answers for 09 Sep 2009 (pt 0028)

SIC orders release of PFI prison contract financial model

2009-09-10T12:04:00.005+01:00

BBC News
10 September 2009

Scotland's Information Commissioner has ordered the release of key financial data from a £50m PFI contract for Kilmarnock jail.

The Scottish Prison Service (SPS) and the private jail's operator had resisted giving the information to the union Unison.

They argued it would substantially prejudice the contractor's commercial interests.

Unison said it was "a major victory for the public's right to know".

The prison is operated by Serco on behalf of the Scottish Prison Service.

The SPS said it was "currently considering its response".

Information Commissioner Kevin Dunion said the significance of the financial model data had diminished substantially since the 25-year contract was signed in November 1997.

Unison's Scottish organiser Dave Watson said the union had long argued there was too much secrecy around PFI and Public Private Partnership (PPP) contracts.

"Too often the public is denied information about the costs of hospital, school and prison contracts on the grounds of commercial prejudice or commercial confidentiality," he said.

"This decision is extremely important and should help pave the way for greater access to information about all PFI/PPP contracts."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/glasgow_and_west/8247114.stm

SIC Decision 104/2009 UNISON Scotland and the Scottish Prison Service here.

FOI Disclosure Stories 10 August - 6 September 2009

2009-09-09T15:04:00.005+01:00

Dental costs vary hugely across UK - Guardian Unlimited 04/09/09
“Huge variations in dental costs across the country have emerged from figures showing that in some areas practitioners are paid almost 10 times as much as others… The apparent disparities in dentists' pay come from a series of Freedom of Information requests put in to English primary care trusts (PCTs)... In Westminster PCT, for example, the figures show that the maximum paid for a UDA is £105.58 and the minimum £20.19. By contrast, in Sandwell, a relatively deprived area in the West Midlands, the range is from £11.08 per UDA up to a maximum of £45.83.”

Tories put the heat on school kitchens - Guardian Unlimited 03/09/09
“Almost one in five primary schools do not have the equipment to prepare lunches on site, forcing them to serve ‘meals on wheels’, a survey of local authorities, conducted by the Conservatives using the Freedom of Information Act, has revealed. Three out of 10 schools do not have full kitchens, with 2,853 primaries transporting food from another school and some 670 schools serving only cold food.”

Use of restraint surges in YOIs – Children & Young People Now 03/09/09
“New figures obtained by CYP Now from the Ministry of Justice show that, while use of restraint in secure children's homes (SCHs) and secure training centres (STCs) has dropped, the practice is on the rise in young offender institutions (YOIs). In the year ending March 2009, restraint was used 4,274 times in YOIs compared with 3,409 times the previous year.”

Applicants avoid top jobs as FSA gets tough - FTAdviser 03/09/09
“Nearly one in 10 applicants chasing top jobs at large financial services firms have withdrawn their applications since the FSA started scrutinising the hiring process, according to Reynolds Porter Chamberlain. Following a Freedom of Information Act request the FSA released data to the city law firm revealing 15 applicants for senior roles had withdrawn their application for FSA approval before receiving a formal response from the regulator. At the stage of their withdrawals only 147 had been interviewed by the FSA, with a further 27 arranged or to be arranged.”

'Pointless rebranding wastes money' - Public Servant 01/09/09
“The government is wasting hundreds of thousands of pounds on pointless rebranding, the Tories have said, including £3,830 on a new Department for Communities and Local Government logo when the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister was abolished three years ago only for another £24,765 to be spent rebranding the department as Communities and Local Government. As a result of a Freedom of Information Act request, the Conservatives have found that almost £170,000 has been spent on such rebranding.”

Village schools closing at a rate of one a month - Telegraph.co.uk 31/08/09
“One village school is closing every month as an increasing number of families find themselves priced out of the countryside, campaigners have warned. Research commissioned by a coalition of housing and education groups suggests that if the situation continues to worsen, another 200 rural schools will shut within five years. Figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by the Housing Federation show that between 2004 and 2008, 62 country primary schools closed their doors forever, an average of 12 a year.”

‘More than 30’ police hurt at G20 – BBC 30/08/09
“More than 30 police officers were injured in clashes or accidents during protests at the G20 summit in London, new figures show. The injuries ranged from being hit by flying debris, attacked by protesters or crushed in crowds to dog bites and being scalded while making a hot drink. Officers from four forces were involved in the two-day operation in April.”

Cost of school rebuilding soars - Guardian Unlimited 30/08/09
“The costs of planning and setting up new schools have soared by 50% under the government's rebuilding programme, with one council paying consultants £24m before a single building had even been constructed. The massive rises in the cost of new privately financed schools – obtained under the Freedom of Information Act – have contributed to the bill for the government's flagship school rebuilding programme spiralling from £45bn to £55bn.”

CRB looks to ID cards to solve accuracy woes - The Register 27/08/09
“Millions could be asked to provide ID card and fingerprint data to get a job under new systems being developed by the Home Office following a collapse in the accuracy of background checks. News of the plans emerged in the response to a Register Freedom of Information Act request to the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB). Today campaigners warned it could be used to help impose ID cards through the back door.”

Mervyn King agreed £16million of bonuses for Bank of England staff over three years - Telegraph.co.uk 27/08/09
“Figures obtained by The Daily Telegraph under the Freedom of Information Act show that Mr. [Mervyn] King agreed cash payments totalling £15.8million for his 1,600 staff in the three years until the end of March 2009. The bonuses were sanctioned by an executive team chaired by Mr King. They increased by 19 per cent as Britain slid into recession from £4.8million in 2006/7, to £5.3million in 2007/8 and £5.7million in 2008/9.”

4,000 Born Out of Baby Wards – The Mirror 26/08/09
“Almost four thousand women gave birth outside maternity wards in England last year… Figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, showed 1,548 women had unplanned home births, 38 babies were born in an ambulance and 333 in transit to the hospital. It was revealed 63 children were delivered in A&E and 171 in an antenatal wards or area.”

BBC spends more than £1m entering programmes for awards - Telegraph.co.uk 26/08/09
“The corporation is devoting £329,400 of licence fee-payers’ money to its Awards Unit this year, according to documents released under the Freedom of Information Act. For the past two years it has spent even more, with the budget totalling £366,000. The unit, which is overseen by Jana Bennett, the BBC television chief, also employs two staff members, the documents show.”

Pavement trip payouts cost £82m - BBCi 25/08/09
“Councils in England have paid out more than £82m in compensation over the past five years to people who have tripped on pavements, figures have revealed. More than 90 authorities responded to a Freedom of Information request by the Liberal Democrats. Leeds City Council had the highest compensation payment, which was £10.2m between 2004 and 2009.”

Home Office trebles consultancy spend - ComputerWeekly 25/08/09
“Home Office spending on its top five consultants almost trebled from £27.3m to £77.8m in the past year as it wrestled with two huge and controversial projects, the national identity scheme and the interception modernisation programme. The big winners were PA Consulting and Deloitte & Touche, which between them have taken £61.6m in the past two years.”

CCTV Boom 'Failing In Fight Against Crime' - Sky News 24/08/09
“An internal police report has raised serious concerns about whether CCTV is being used effectively in the fight against crime. The document reveals that CCTV footage was used to solve less than one crime for every 1,000 cameras in London. Obtained from Scotland Yard using the Freedom of Information Act, the report recommends an overhaul of the way CCTV is handled across the UK.”

Champagne general? He drinks £1.49 plonk and shops at Lidl – News of the World 23/08/09
“[Armed Force chief General Sir Richard Dannatt’s] total [expenses] over the last four financial years, including 18 months official expenses as Commander in Chief Land Forces, adds up to a modest £19,290.77… In the last year most of the 17 formal dinners he hosted in London at his official Kensington Palace residence followed a trip to a nearby Tesco. On August 31, 2008, he hosted Indian Army Chief General Deepak Kapoor, Indian High Commissioner Shiv Mukherjee, and 21 others for a reception at Kensington Palace costing £123.58. It worked out at £5.15 per person, consisting largely of pastry, cheese and salmon from Tesco..."

Government art cost taxpayers £500,000 – Telegraph.co.uk 22/08/09
“Details obtained through a freedom of information request reveal that, despite the economic downturn, the Government Art Collection has spent £556,911 on acquisitions in the year 2008 to 2009. This is a 34 per cent increase from the previous year and more than double what was spent on artworks in 2006 to 2007.”

450,000 children failed by 'coasting' schools - Telegraph.co.uk 22/08/09
“More than 450,000 children are being taught in ‘coasting’ schools that are failing to stretch their pupils, according to the Government's own assessment. Official data, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, shows that a total of 470 secondary schools, many located in middle-class suburbs and shire counties, are ‘resting on their laurels’ instead of pushing pupils to get the best grades. They have been designated as ‘coasting’ by the Department for Children, Schools and Families under new criteria introduced last year.”

High cost of Iraq war surprised Whitehall - FT.com 21/08/09
“Tony Blair’s government believed the UK would spend no more on the 2003 invasion of Iraq than it did on the 1991 Gulf war, according to documents released under freedom of information rules... In a document drawn up for Ed Balls, special adviser to Gordon Brown, the then chancellor, officials said the “central estimate” for the cost of “preparation, deployment and return” of UK troops from Iraq was £2.5bn, similar to the figure for UK participation in the 1991 Gulf war. However, Treasury estimates rose sharply, and in February 2003 it suggested that the war would cost £5.5bn in the worst possible case. According to the Ministry of Defence, the total cost of UK military operations in Iraq from 2003 to 2009 was £8.4bn."

Thousands of NHS samples ‘mislabelled’ – Channel 4 More 4 News 20/08/09
“Following an FOI request to every NHS trust in the UK, to which 120 trusts replied, it emerged that 365,608 specimens were mislabelled before they arrived at the pathology laboratories. In addition, 11,712 samples were incorrectly labelled by pathology lab staff. More4’s FOI investigation also revealed there were 46 recorded cases last year where mislabelling was found to have been related either to a patient death or a significant delay in patient treatment.”

Local authorities breach parking guidelines - The Times 18/08/09
“Six local authority councils have been accused by the consumer watchdog Which? of breaching Government guidelines by setting targets for the number of parking tickets issued by their wardens. A freedom of information request by Which? found that the councils - Basildon, Richmond upon Thames, Lewisham, Bromley, Shropshire and Carmarthenshire - all ‘expect a certain number of tickets to be issued.’ Setting such targets is against Department for Transport guidelines.”

Energy minister walks the talk as he shuns Government limo - Click Green 17/08/09
“Records released under a Freedom of Information Act request showed that Energy and Climate Change Minister Lord Hunt walked to 24 official events and cycled to a further three. In the seven months up to May this year, Gordon Brown's green envoy used his ministerial car on 26 occasions to travel to meetings in Oxford and on the outskirts of London.”

The great police pay overtime bonanza - The Independent 17/08/09
“Britain's police constables are topping up their salaries by thousands of pounds every year – in some cases more than doubling their annual pay – by making large overtime claims, an investigation by The Independent has discovered. Freedom of information requests responded to by 35 of the 51 forces in England, Scotland and Wales showed that more than 12,000 PCs claimed more than £6,000 each in overtime last year – a 20 per cent increase on their salaries. Officers in some of the country's rural forces earned upwards of £25,000 in overtime alone. Nearly 500 made more than £15,000 on top of their salaries."

Banksy charged £1 for Bristol exhibition, insisted CCTV footage destroyed - The Times 13/08/09
“The feted street artist and collector’s favourite Banksy charged just £1 for staging an exhibition in his home town of Bristol on the condition that all CCTV footage of him preparing the show was destroyed. A Freedom of Information Act request revealed that the elusive artist, who can fetch up to £300,000 for a single work, agreed to the nominal fee from Bristol City Council even though the exhibition at the City Museum and Art Gallery is his largest ever.”

Foreign embassies owe £28 million in unpaid congestion charge - Telegraph.co.uk 10/08/09
“The Foreign Office has taken over the collection of unpaid congestion charges and parking fines by overseas embassies in London which now stand at £28 million. The total has more than doubled from £12 million in the last 12 months according to figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.”

Regional

Thousands of Denbighshire pupils taught in prefabs - Denbighshire Visitor 02/09/09
“At least 90 schools in North Wales are relying on 157 temporary cabins – with some dating back to the 1960s. More than 3,000 children across the region are having lessons in them, figures released under the Freedom of Information Act show.”

Parents put kids at risk over seatbelts - Manchester Evening News 01/09/09
“Shocking figures obtained by the M.E.N. under the Freedom of Information Act show that 695 drivers were given fixed penalty notices by Greater Manchester Police over 18 months for not belting up children under three properly. And a further 832 people were fined £30 for failing to make a child aged between three and 14 wear rear seatbelts.”

The Met set: cops' £12.5m air fare bill - thelondonpaper 24/08/09
“Scotland Yard racked up a £12.5m bill flying officers around the world in just three years. Thousands of business-class trips were booked by the force to destinations such as the Caribbean and the Far East, with the most expensive being £9,300, a freedom of information request showed.”

Scotland

Record level of student hardship funding, say LibDems - The Herald 30/08/09
“The number of students applying for financial help because of hardship has reached a new high, it was claimed yesterday. A total of 14,386 students at Scottish universities applied for hardship funding in the academic year 2008-09… The figure, obtained by the Lib Dems through Freedom of Information, is an increase of more than 1000 from 2007-08, where there was a previous record high of 13,283 applications.”

Ministers go off the rails - Daily and Sunday Express 29/08/09
“Statistics released under Freedom of Information laws show half of Alex Salmond’s 16 ministers snubbed rail trips in favour of being ferried around in luxury limos. Transport Minister Stewart Stevenson has used the train more than all his SNP colleagues put together, according to the figures. But eight ministers, including cabinet secretaries Fiona Hyslop, Nicola Sturgeon and Kenny MacAskill, did not use the railways at all in 2008/9.”

Updated ICO Freedom of Information guidance

2009-09-03T10:48:00.005+01:00

The Information Commissioner's Office has recently updated the following FOI guidance:

Section 16 - Advice and assistance (AG23) – recently updated 1/07/09
Public interest test (AG3) – recently updated 1/7/09
Section 30 - Investigations (AG16) – recently updated 03/08/09
Section 31 - Law enforcement (AG17) – recently updated 03/08/09

Using the FOI Act - courses for new & experienced requesters

2009-09-02T15:19:00.005+01:00

Do you want to learn how to use the Freedom of Information Act? Are you already using the Act, but want to know more about how the Information Commissioner and Information Tribunal are interpreting key provisions?

The Campaign for Freedom of Information is running two half-day courses for FOI requesters in central London on 20 October 2009. The morning course will provide an introduction to the legislation covering both the Freedom of Information Act and the Environmental Information Regulations. The afternoon course will examine some of the key decisions made under the two regimes and explain how they can help you obtain information. Requesters can attend either or both courses.

Further information and details on how to book are available here.

16/9/09 UPDATE: Please note that the course on 20 October is now full up. However, if there is sufficient demand, we are proposing to run the course again on Wed 28th October 2009. Please let us know if you would be interested in attending the course on this date.

Ministry of Defence criticised for freedom of information handling

2009-08-13T12:15:00.004+01:00

The Information Commissioner's Office has issued the Ministry of Defence with a practice recommendation ordering it to improve its handling of internal reviews and ensure its standard target for completing internal reviews conforms to the Commissioner's guidance. The guidance states that reviews should normally be completed within 20 working days and in no case should the time taken exceed 40 working days.

The practice recommendation states:

Having viewed the available evidence, the Commissioner was concerned that the MOD was failing to conduct reviews promptly and that in so doing was failing to adhere to his published guidance in this respect.
...
In addition to his concerns that the MOD was failing to conform to the Code and to his guidance, the Commissioner also found that the standard target for internal review completion set in the MOD’s procedure and in correspondence it sent to requesters was 40 working days. It appeared to the Commissioner, therefore, that non-conformity to his recommendations was built into the MOD’s review procedure.

In October 2008...the Commissioner, via his FOI Good Practice and Enforcement Team, wrote to the MOD and informally sought assurances that its internal review procedure would be amended to reflect his recommendations.

The MOD provided the Commissioner with statistics regarding the timeliness of its reviews. It acknowledged that its performance required improvement and gave assurances in this regard. The MOD declined to make the recommended changes to its internal review procedure, despite being advised that failure to do so would increase the likelihood that a practice recommendation would be issued, particularly if further complaints regarding this issue were received.

The MOD’s failure to follow the Commissioner’s informal recommendations and the evidence of its continuing poor performance has led to the issuing of this practice recommendation

ICO press release here.
The practice recommendation is here.