With the warning that the Freedom of Information Act is under attack here are the best stories we have uncovered using the act in 2014.
Reporters prefer not to resort to FOI laws to get information, but more and more, council, NHS or public body press departments deflect complicated questions and ask journalists to send in an FOI request.
Navigating the complicated waters of making a request can take skill and time. Private Eye editor Ian Hislop told Press Gazette of the “the way people try and stop you using the Act in the hope that you’ll give up”.
But when it works, the results can make the effort worthwhile, even if it takes a long time, appeals or the ultimate intervention of the Information Commissioner to jolt councils and public bodies to answer properly.
And if you are a resident, business person, concerned citizen, or campaigner you can use the act too to get answers to whatever questions are concerning you. See the bottom of this story for some top tips.
Last year our journalists used the Freedom of Information Act to reveal:
- The director of a failing children's services department was given a secret £128,000 pay off to persuade him to leave
- Taxpayers have shelled out £80,000 on a police boss suspended for a year
- Londoners make up a third of people arrested for crimes in leafy Epsom and Ewell
- The security bungles that let a child killer slip guards and escape a courtroom
- Left in misery by unfinished roadworks in SW London last year? We found out which company was the worst offender
- More than 1,500 people have been patiently (or impatiently) waiting 10 years or longer for a council house
- Most dangerous bus routes you might want to avoid
- Huge compensation claims paid out by councils
- Surprisingly positive trends in the number of teachers attacked by pupils
- Drunks are costing ambulance service vast amounts to deal with each year
- A council has dished out nearly £5m in parking fines - the fourth most lucrative in the UK
- More trees were being cut down than planted in one London borough
- Hospital patients meant to be resting were moved 4,000 times a year during the night
- Newly qualified social workers can be dealing with up to 18 complex cases at once
- Spending on language translation in hospitals has tripled in five years
- Bookworms owed £10,000 in late library fines in one London borough
And yes... the occasional frivolous request.
- How many people in Sutton own an ostrich? - an FOI request which does not say exactly how many people in Sutton own an ostrich
How to make a request:
Councils and public bodies are supposed to publish as much information as they can online including the land they own, details of grants they have given out, senior salaries, and all payments to contractors over £500.
But if they don't, any question, however simple, you put in writing to them should be treated by them as a Freedom of Information request. That means they have to answer it unless there is a legal reason not to do so.
They can't simply say they don't want to tell you as they could do before the act came in.
Here's some more advice about making an FOI request.
FOI Man’s Guide to Making FOI Requests
Have you made an interesting Freedom of Information request? Let us know at digitalmedia@london.newsquest.co.uk
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