Article: Voting in the US elections
Oct 31, 2008 Articles, Freedom of Information
A shot of pure democracy
The Big Issue, October 2008
By Heather Brooke
I’ve just completed my absentee ballot for the US elections. It took two requests to receive it but I don’t think that had anything to do with me being a democrat in the state of Florida – famous for voting irregularities that helped put George [...]
Lies, damned lies and statistics
Oct 31, 2008 Freedom of Information
The misclassification of government crime figures revealed last week will instil even greater distrust of official statistics, if that’s possible. For data you can rely on, you need to see the raw numbers yourself. This is why FOI is so important.
FOI requests made by Sunday Telegraph reporters showed how crime figures are being spun [...]
Data loss
Oct 31, 2008 Freedom of Information
They do say that the private sector is more efficient than the public sector; but I didn’t realise it was true of data leaks. The UK’s financial services firms put 16.5 million people at risk of ID fraud last year, according to figures released to Computer Weekly.
The Freedom of Information Act has so far [...]
Family Court Secrecy
Oct 20, 2008 FOI in the news, Freedom of Information, Justice & Courts
Family courts are to be opened up to public scrutiny The Times announces today. The move is in response to mounting criticism from parents whose children are taken into care and complaints that they are victims of “secret justice”.
I wrote about the problem of secrecy in the Family Courts back in 2004 in the first [...]
UK MPs to be given extension for disclosing expenses
Oct 20, 2008 Campaigns, Central Government, Freedom of Information
The Telegraph has revealed that MPs will now receive a months ‘grace period’ before the full details of their expenses claims are published.
Before details are made public, MPs will be able to use the appeal period to decide which entries are a risk to their security and therefore should be omitted from the public [...]
Article: Lament for the public loo
Oct 10, 2008 Articles, Campaigns, Local Government
Public services should be for the many not the few
The Big Issue, September 2008
By Heather Brooke
In for a penny in for a pound or at least 50 pence. That’s how much you’ll pay to visit the so-called public toilets around Parliament.
Local councils say the reason for leasing out the loos to private companies is [...]
BBC serves up Wimbledon entertainment
Oct 10, 2008 FOI in the news, Freedom of Information
A recent Freedom of Information request revealed the BBC spent more than £80,000 entertaining guests at Wimbledon 2008. According to The Telegraph the Beeb splurged £53,528 on a “marquee and associated costs” and £18,281 on hospitality, including food and drink. In addition, a total of £9,645 was spent on items such as match tickets, car [...]
Finding the cheats
Oct 8, 2008 FOI in the news, Freedom of Information
At this time of year, many sixth-formers across the country are thinking about where to apply to university and their decision may be informed by figures released under the FOIA.
An article recently published in the The Times (University had 65 cheats and 801 plagiarists says:
“Cheating at London Metropolitan University is worse than at any [...]
Transparency: What’s the point?
Oct 8, 2008 Freedom of Information
A new report by the Campaign for Freedom of Information (CFOI) highlights the contribution that the Fredom of Information Act has made to good journalism. It says that 2006 and 2007 together saw over 1,000 FOI-generated articles published by the media, noting in particular the wide range of information released.
The CFOI press release [...]
Politicians using FOI
Oct 8, 2008 FOI in the news, Freedom of Information
Freedom of information not only enables scrutiny by the citizen, it also helps political figures keep an eye on one another. A couple of recent examples:
Andrew Lansley, the Shadow Health Secretary, recently used FOI requests to show that the government has not met its pledge to stop accommodating children on adult psychiatric wards. The [...]
