Background material and general reporting on an area can often provide all sorts of clues and leads for further, deeper investigation. This piece from the Birmingham Mail is a particularly good example. On the surface it is a rather general report on an empty property in the city – but along the way it includes all sorts […]
I’ve been meaning to review FOIA Without the Lawyer for almost a year now. A natural companion to Heather Brooke’s introductory Your Right To Know, this takes the challenges that come after the FOI is submitted: the niggling exemptions and excuses used by public bodies to avoid supplying information requested under the Act. In the […]
Since 2011, all councils have been required to publish expenditure on items over £500. At the CIJ Summer School this year, Paul Francis and Ted Jeory explained how to turn this information into a story… What is ‘expenditure’? Individual invoices Grant payments Expense payments Payments for goods and services Credit notes Transactions with other public […]
Over on Help Me Investigate Health, we’ve published a list of Freedom of Information emails for clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) – the new bodies controlling local health spending in England. The list was compiled two months ago for Health Service Journal by Tom Warren and Matt Burgess, shortly after the new bodies took control, but is only now being published by HMI. As […]
Help Me Investigate has compiled a list of Freedom of Information emails for the new bodies overseeing local health spending in England. The list was compiled for Health Service Journal by Tom Warren and Matt Burgess, and is reproduced here … Continue reading →
Tweet MAP: The Department for Education’s spend across London hotels in 2012/13. The Department for Education spent more than £1m of taxpayers’ money on hotel rooms for staff last year, including at 4* hotels in the heart of London. The … Continue reading →
Tweet The Department of Education continues to perform poorly in responding to Freedom of Information (FOI) requests, according to recently published figures. The figures, published by the Ministry of Justice, show the department responded late to 21% of the requests they … Continue reading →
TweetTimes Higher Education reporter David Matthews wrote about “stumbling blocks” to university transparency this month – and in the process highlighted some useful tips for those wanting to investigate higher education. Here are the highlights: Who makes the decisions? Most … Continue reading →
Over on Help Me Investigate Health, Tom Warren has written a guide to using the Freedom of Information tool WhatDoTheyKnow. Key tips include: Consider sending an FOI directly to the authority if you want to keep it private – but also remember that doing so publicly can be a great way to find contacts and ideas […]
The Independent recently got a great story from citizen FOI website whatdotheyknow.com about MPs running tabs in the bars at parliament. It just goes to show what a great resource whatdotheyknow.com is. If you haven’t used it yet, have a … Continue reading →