Media update part two

Scotsman - CRUISE firms sail into health storm
"We decided to use the Freedom of Information Act to check ... on cruise ships carried out by inspectors from the Ports Health Authority in the UK made freely."

IC Huddersfield - 94,923 caught over speed limit
"Huddersfield-based road safety charity Brake have mixed views about the figures. The figures were obtained under the Freedom of Information
Act."

British Journal of Psychiatry- The Freedom of Information Act 2000: should psychiatrists be worried?

Press Gazette - HUGE drop in use of Irish FoI Act
"Irish Government statistics have confirmed the dramatic decline in the use of the Freedom of Information Act since the Government introduced restrictions."

IC Coventry - LIBRARIES hit in vandal attacks
"More than half of libraries in Warwick-shire were vandalised in the last year the Evening Telegraph can reveal today. Of the 29 libraries, 16 suffered at the hands of yobs who caused a total damage bill of nearly £13,000."

FT.com - UK companies use FoI to give them an edge
"The private sector appears to be waking up to the possibilities offered by the Freedom of Information Act.But when consultants and lawyers explain how companies can use the legislation to help them bid for public sector contracts, they are commonly met with the response: “We can’t be seen to be doing this."

E-Health - QoF data to be published online
"Practices will no longer have to release Quality and Outcome Framework data if asked to do so under the Freedom of Information Act as data will be in the public domain from tomorrow (August 31), GPs have been told. Revised guidance on the Freedom of Information Act from the British Medical Association’s GP committee advises GPs in England, Wales and Northern Ireland that QoF data including details of achievement at individual practice and individual indicator level is due to be published at the end of August."

Guardian (Letters) - What Birt didn't see
"John Birt claims the media are too superficial in their political reporting (Birt attacks 'easy cruelty' of tabloid Britain, August 27), but fails to mention the root cause - an intensely secretive and controlling government.
Until the Freedom of Information Act came into force on January 1 2005, reporters - and the public - had few legal means of finding out what government was up to with our money. Is it any wonder that journalists became "obsessed not with policy, but with personality"?"

IC Berkshire - NO 1 area for vehicle crime revealed
"the town's number one vehicle crime blackspot in figures obtained by the Chronicle from Thames Valley Police under the Freedom of Information Act"

The Times - GO-AHEAD for league tables of hospital death rate
"ONE of Britain’s leading hospitals has become the first to publish all of its death rates online, in a move that is expected to start a flood of information being made available to patients."

Ireland
Irish Examiner- Freedom of Information - FOI fees must be reassessed