Records being shredded before Information Act
Nov 29, 2004 Articles, Central Government
I worked with the Daily Telegraph on a series of articles examining whether government officials were shredding record numbers of documents in an imprudent attempt to get their records systems in order prior to full implementation of the Freedom of Information Act. I will shortly post all the figures and governmental communications I [...]
A way through the smokescreen
Nov 27, 2004 Articles, Central Government
The Guardian
Thursday November 25, 2004
Large government IT projects are likely to feel the heat once the Freedom of Information Act comes into force next month. Michael Cross looks at the battle against secrecy
See the full article here.
This article addresses the government’s ongoing love-affair with secrecy and how in the area of IT
Heather Brooke, [...]
Transport for London complaint
Nov 26, 2004 Articles, Campaigns, Transport
My complaint to the Information Commissioner resulted in an article in today’s Guardian by Hugh Muir: Secrecy rebuke over contracts for tube.
See the full article here.
The complaint involved TfL’s failure to make public its controversial public-private partnership contracts and funding formula for the Tube, which it had committed to doing so by January 2004 [...]
Computer Weekly campaigns for openness in Govt IT projects
Nov 23, 2004 Central Government
Computer Weekly magazine has launched a campaign urging greater openness and transparency in the development and management of government IT projects as a means of ending the litany of multi-million pound disasters.
Transparency is not a dirty word
View full article here.
At a hearing of the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee, MPs from the three [...]
Open up parking systems
Nov 23, 2004 Local Government
The number of parking tickets issued by money-grabbing councils continues to rocket according to a report released yesterday by the National Parking Adjudication Service. The report states that 2.45 million tickets were issued in 2003, up 300,000 from 2.13 million in 2002.
An article in today’s Times quotes Caroline Sheppard, chief adjudicator for England and [...]
Drug firm ‘kept quiet about lethal side-effect’
Nov 23, 2004 Health
A report in the Journal of the American Medical Association by Dr Bruce Psaty says that a heart drug believed to be responsible for nearly 100 deaths was not withdrawn from the market sooner because data showing the drug’s fatal side-effects was kept secret
The full article in JAMA can be viewed here.
Police and CPS should put us in the picture
Nov 23, 2004 Justice & Courts
An interesting article in today’s Times, Law Section written by John Battle, ITN head of compliance. He argues that the public have a right to see film footage and other images shown in open court.
The article examines the Crown Prosecution Service’s ill-informed decision to ban disclosure of all footage related to criminal trials, even that [...]
Drug sales reps discussed on You & Yours
Nov 22, 2004 Health
Today’s You & Yours on BBC Radio 4 featured an enlightening discussion on the way drugs companies wine and dine doctors with the purpose of influencing what drugs they perscribe. Greater transparency of the way drugs are chosen and approved is an issue I campaign for in Your Right to Know. The Health Select Committee [...]
Tell us about the mould and rats
New Statesman: Observations
Monday 22nd November 2004
Observations on food by Heather Brooke
As a curry often follows a night on the beers, so a dodgy tummy often follows the next morning. Nobody knows precisely how many people suffer from food poisoning in Britain or which restaurants, takeaways and shops are the likely culprits; a secretive inspection regime [...]
New timetable for EIRs
Nov 19, 2004 Access Laws, Book Updates, Environment
The new Environmental Information Regulations have been laid in Parliament and will be debated on 9th December 2004.
Hester Tidcombe from DEFRA’s Sustainable Development Unit says they are still expecting the law to be fully implemented on 1 January 2005 along with FOI.
Consultation on a draft Code of Practice to accompany the updated EIRs closed on [...]
