Media update - Part 2

Some more stories from while I've been away:

National News

The Guardian - Three trusts fail to reveal heart death figures
"Three leading NHS hospitals risk being downgraded for failing to give information on the death rates of their heart surgery patients, the Guardian has learned. The trusts are the only ones in the UK not to have provided key data for the Healthcare Commission, which has been gathering information on mortality rates linked to individual surgeons. The information will be published today on a groundbreaking website designed to enable heart patients and their families the chance to make informed choices about where to have surgery."

Daily Telegraph - Migrants 'paid' to leave for good - twice
"But since 2000, nine people have taken the package twice, according to figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. Four were flown twice to Albania, three to Kosovo, one to Poland and one to Nigeria. One also got a business grant worth £797."

The Observer - Cruel cost of the human egg trade
"n today's global market, a healthy human egg from a young white European woman is more valuable than gold. Under British law any fertility clinic that wants to import or export embryos fertilised by donor eggs must obtain a special licence from the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA). In January, using the Freedom of Information Act, The Observer asked the HFEA for a list of all the special licences it approved last year."

Regional News

Birmingham Post - MP wants answers on jailed postie
"Meanwhile, Birmingham City Council leader Mike Whitby said he had written to the Home Office under the Freedom of Information Act demanding to know how many foreign criminals had been released from prisons in the city."

Birmingham Post - Toll road that failed to solve traffic problem
"Highways Agency reports made available to The Birmingham Post under the Freedom of Information Act show that the agency was not consulted when the toll-rate was first set and then revised upwards last summer."

IC Essex - County Council gives 'threat' teacher details to YA
"The existence of six individuals who may pose a risk was confirmed in January following a YA request to Essex County Council under the Freedom of Information Act."

IC Essex - Police defend £21,000 taxis bill
"Figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act revealed Sussex Police spent £21,617 to take suspects home after arrest in the 11 months up to February 28 this year."

This is Bradford - 33 school kitchens break hygiene law
"More than 30 school kitchens across Bradford have been found to be in breach of food hygiene laws Reports obtained by the Telegraph & Argus under the Freedom of Information Act reveal slightly more than half of 142 schools inspected last year were given a clean bill of health by environmental health officers."