How do you get the expense receipts for election candidates? It’s really very simple – so why isn’t everyone doing it?

You first need to contact the Elections Office for your local council – in Birmingham their email is elections [at] birmingham.gov.uk (you should be able to get their contact details by ringing your council’s general contact number)

• Tell them that you will be arriving later that day and which expense returns you will be looking at. You can look at them all for free in their office, but if you want to take away a copy you’ll have to pay 20p per sheet, so it’s probably best to look at them first before choosing which pages you want copies of.
• Ask for directions to the office as it may be tucked away – this video shows where Birmingham’s Election Office is located, on up a side alley off Great Charles Street.
• Expenses are divided into the ‘short campaign’ (the period of around four weeks after an election is announced) and a ‘long campaign’ (the period before the election is announced). I found at least one candidate put all the receipts for both into one bundle, so it’s worth getting both out.
• Check for missing sheets.

That’s it. There generally isn’t that much to look at in the short campaign receipts so you shouldn’t be there too long.

Curiously, the Birmingham office told me that no one ever comes to look at the receipts (apart from one election candidate), so someone should.

It’s a good idea to bring a laptop if you have one and copy key details across to a spreadsheet (company names, etc.).?

I published?the campaign expenses of candidates in Edgbaston on a website: Edgbaston Election Campaign Expenses 2010?- and I blogged about how I did that.?

Background: A Channel 4 investigation has “raised questions over the election expenses of Zac Goldsmith” – in particular only claiming partial expenses on the grounds that ‘not all material was used’.

The responses of Goldsmith and the Conservative Party suggest “candidates were justified in only accounting for items used as material can become out of date during a campaign … the examples raised could be seen in the returns of other candidates.”

We want to see if this is true. Are other candidates not claiming for the expense of ‘unused’ materials? Or is Goldsmith an exception?

We’ve started one investigation in Birmingham but would really welcome sister investigations in other towns and cities.

I’ve just put all the election expenses for the main 2 candidates in the fiercely fought Edgbaston constituency online so that people can look at them, post comments and link to them if they need to make a point.

Here’s how I did it:

• I went to the Elections Office in Birmingham to get a copy of the expenses returns. I’ll blog about this separately. Strangely, I was told that, while they could photocopy the documents, they couldn’t photocopy to PDF because they were “too big”. This exercise is at least in part about demonstrating how easily the returns could be put online.
• I then photocopied each sheet of the returns to PDF, and sent it to my email. Most relatively modern photocopiers can do this.
• I set up a new blog using Posterous.com called Edgbaston Election Campaign Expenses (for search engine optimisation) and added that email address to the contributors (in the Manage menu)
• I forwarded each email to the address associated with that blog (post@edgbastonelectionexpenses.posterous.com).
• I tagged each emailed document by using a standard header for each email that I copied and pasted – at the end of the header were a series of tags in double brackets like this: ((labour, gisela stuart, expenses, edgbaston)). This makes it easy to find particular types of documents.

That’s it.

I’ve still got a bunch of receipts to put on the blog for Gisela Stuart which I’ll try to do tomorrow. And then it’s Hall Green.

The point of the blog is to help provide some context to the Zac Goldsmith election expenses investigation. We’ll also be digging into these receipts for some investigations of our own.

But it’s also to show how it can be done – if you want to get your own candidates’ expenses online, let me know in the comments and I’ll be happy to help out.

It seems recognition of Help Me Investigate is spreading: last week the site was shortlisted for Multimedia Publisher of the Year at the NUJ Regional Press Awards.?

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has published an important ruling relating to public bodies attempting to assert copyright on FOI responses. According to Martin Rosenbaum:

“The Commons told Mr Irving [of MySociety] that it could send him material directly by e-mail, but it would not respond through the whatdotheyknow system because the automatic web publication of its reply would breach Parliamentary copyright.”

The ICO have ruled that they must now comply, even though it means it will be published online.

Although this is a specific ruling (a similar one is due on Brent Council), it is a useful one to quote if you encounter similar objections from public bodies. Embedded above.

Hello there,

Birmingham City Council have published a report into the content management system that was investigated by Help Me Investigate users last year and generated a number of news reports.

How are you doing? Late night? Well, here's the latest from Help Me Investigate – see if you can make a difference…

Who funds the New Schools Network? That's the question being asked by Jack Cues, which will become more relevant as the new government looks into education policy:

"NSN is charity aiming to take advantage of proposed education policy to set up what are described as ?free? schools. Many companies such as http://www.edisonlearning.net/ http://www.gemseducation.com/ and http://www.schoolchains.org/en/school/cognita-schools-united-kingdom will have the opportunity to profit but who is financing the charity?"

This is a nice investigation to get your teeth into, as it mainly involves looking into the directors of the company. Join the investigation here.

Other new investigations:

• 'Environmental information' how strictly is it being defined?

• ?Which (and how many) MPs are currently being investigated by the Commissioner for Standards??

• How much money do the various donation websites take from charities?

• Can a taxi firm send me SMS adverts simply because they have my number?

• What are councils required to do, as a minimum, when responding to FOI requests and updating disclosure logs?

• Which MPs are writing identical letters to their constituents about the Digital Economy Bill?

Completed: Another investigation has been marked as complete since last month: Why my doctors have an 0845 number?

Useful: A great tool for checking which companies people hold directorships in. http://directors.mapofpower.com/

Remember you can invite anyone you know to Help Me Investigate – just click on 'Invite People' on the top right of any individual investigation.

People were understandably angry that they had to pay up to 40p to call their General Practitioner (GP) because of 0845 numbers, and so began the investigation, under the question ?Why my doctors have an 0845 number?.

The consultation period for use of 0845 numbers began 16th December 2008 and ended March 31st 2009, as stated by Ben Bradshaw MP, Minister of State for Health Services;

?We have been very pleased with the level of public response to this consultation, having received a much higher volume of responses than expected.

Whilst this is, of course, very positive news in itself in terms of demonstrating the strength of public feeling around this issue, it is important to ensure that in reaching an outcome, we fully take into account the breadth of responses received?.

A Which? report that helped in expanding upon and detailing the way in which 0845 numbers are used in GP practices; reportedly, one in six UK Gp?s used 0845 numbers to fund the use of ?Surgery Line, a telephone system promising more access and efficiency, with features like a queuing system and call routing.?

This meant GP?s recieved 2p from each call made to their practice, but this money was then invested straight back into the telephone systems. ?Director of sales George Neal said that surgeries using Surgery Line have increased patient access by 30%, and calls are cheaper overall because they are answered more quickly?.

The NHS were banned from using premium rate numbers throughout the course of the investigation anyway, but the petition against 08** numbers was now up and going strong.

People, as a result started taking notice and becoming more aware of their local GP?s practices; the petition was the spearhead, but individuals became more aware of their own local practice by checking saynoto0870. The investigation had gained momentum and it looked as though things were heading in the right direction.

By September, it was finally being reported that after 3000 people had responded (via the petition) to the consultation, 90% has responded in favour of banning 08** numbers in hospitals or GP surgeries, so calls would cost no more than a standard call from then on.

Despite the positive response by the government to the petition, there was still a fear that because a ?standard call? would still cost more in the evening and across various mobile phone packages, which would still mean people would be paying more than a standard call.

However, towards the end of the investigation, things became clearer with regards to the use of 08** numbers in general.

0845 numbers are not premium rate numbers, and only cost more if the company using them are not subsidising the charges. If a local alternative is being sought, saynoto0870 is still the best place to head. Each organisation will use 0845 numbers for different reasons, whether it be for capital gain or to ensure a local customer will pay locally, or simply for the call management services.

To put it simply, if on a mobile phone package that makes you unsure as to whether you will have to pay extra, find a local alternative through a website like saynoto0870, and otherwise, the calls will be at a standard rate.

The full list of updates, in chronological order (although messy) is here, which makes it easy to see the investigation as it progressed without categorisation.

Here's one investigation which you can help with by simply looking at your local council website:

Glyn Mottershead wants you to help him find out which councils are putting information about Environmental Information Regulations on their websites. By law they should take reasonable steps to make this information public – but are they, and how? (tips here)

Other investigations new to the site since last month include:

• Who funds the New Schools Network?

• How much will the new civic offices in Telford cost & what's the impact?

• Which is the "greenest" University in Birmingham?

• Can a councillor be allowed to represent his community when he does not attend resident associations in his ward ?

• Which Midlands councils have the best recycling facilities and policies?

• How much support is there in schools for children suffering from Selective Eating Disorder?

• How have the cuts to junior doctor's hours affected NHS Obs&Gynae units?

• Why did City Car Club leave Liverpool?

Also in the last month: one completed investigation into the Brumcan charity.

If you're already using the site, remember that you can invite anyone you know to help with investigations by using the 'Invite people' button to the right of every investigation page. If you think anyone could help with your investigation or the investigations above, send them one!