I’m currently writing a book, for which I need to do some surveys and interviews later in the year. To that end, I’m testing out some survey software. Moreover, the story that Chris Cook broke in the FT about private emails in Government last week is still, to my mind, one of the most fascinating […]
The deservedly celebrated blogger FOI Man recently wrote about changes (http://www.foiman.com/archives/382) he thought would help FOI to function better. Inspired by this, I wondered what my changes would be – but on a long car journey, I realised that I actually thought that FOI should be left alone. Even though certain commentators will bend your […]
I blogged about vexatious punters last week, with the egregious example of an applicant plaguing the London Borough of Richmond-Upon-Thames with a variety of unacceptable messages. A decision published by the Tribunal yesterday delivers a vital message to the aggrieved applicant. If you think your public authority is up to something then “the proper course of […]
I like Michael Gove: like Eric Pickles, he keeps happy 1980s memories of Spitting Image alive just by having a face that, even in repose, looks like a caricature. But Mr. Gove has, as described in Chris Cook’s story in the Financial Times, apparently presides over a wrong-headed approach to FOI that shows once again […]
The Cabinet Office, run by the urbane and slightly saturnine Francis Maude, champions the Government’s Transparency agenda. Transparency is the process of publishing (or obliging others to publish) data on a wide variety of subjects. Although Transparency and FOI are clearly nodding acquaintances, they don’t spend a lot of time together socially. Transparency is about […]
I reviewed some Information Commissioner FOI decisions recently for a presentation, and as always, I was drawn to the vexatious ones, both actual and alleged. There’s an intriguing one where a resident had a vehicular disagreement with a council lawnmower and made FOIs as the insurance case went on. I’ve had my fair share of […]
Last month, a participant in the London riots was convicted of stealing £3.50 worth of bottled water, and sentenced to six months in prison. Another lad would have been jailed for the theft of £1 of chewing gum had he not been under 15. If either stole 100,000 people’s details and sold them, they could […]
Paul Whitehouse had a Fast Show character called Archie, a pub bore constantly talking about a chosen profession being the “hardest game in the world… done it meself see..”. Whilst I loved (most of) my five years as a local government FOI officer, I have my Archie moments about it, especially when I remember certain […]
I had intended this blog to cover all aspects of information governance including marketing, but unfortunately, my anorak’s habit of reading terms and conditions has already got the better of me in a possibly irrelevant way.In Waitrose’s weekly magazine, they had a competition sponsored by Jordan’s Cereals to win a weekend in Norfolk. As always, […]
When I lived in Wigan, the most common response to seeing a copy of the local weekly, the Wigan Observer, was to turn to the page that showed who had been up in front of the magistrates. Like most people, what I wanted to know was whether anyone I had been to school with had […]
