“Details concerning the mounting financial crisis facing the Queen have been disclosed to The Independent after ministers agreed to hand over secret correspondence between Buckingham Palace and the Government.
Paramedic 'morphine errors' investigated - BBC 30/03/10
"A woman died and another became seriously ill soon after being given morphine by paramedics, despite family members warning of the patients' allergies to the drug. The incidents were revealed in documents obtained by the BBC under the Freedom of Information Act and are understood to have taken place in Cambridgeshire within months of each other."
Drugs and desertion: how the UK really rates Afghan police- The Independent 28/03/10
“Ghost recruits and widespread corruption are hampering the fight against the Taliban and delaying Britain's withdrawal plans.
NHS porters and cleaners can snoop on your medical records- Daily Mail 26/03/10
“As many as 140,000 non-medical staff, including porters and housekeepers, have access to sensitive NHS patient files, it emerged last night. The astonishing lack of privacy protection has been revealed by a Freedom of Information survey. Government guidelines say only staff involved in 'providing and supporting patient care' should have access to confidential information. But trusts are interpreting the rules so widely that administrators, porters and IT staff are all cleared to potentially delve into a person's medical file. Last night Tory spokesman Stephen O'Brien said the revelation would 'send a shiver down the spine' of NHS patients. The Information Commissioner's office said access to records should be strictly controlled and it would study the revelations to see if further action was needed.”
Gagging law to protect Prince Charles- The Times 21/03/10
“The government is trying to change the law to protect the Prince of Wales from scrutiny when he intervenes in public affairs. Jack Straw, the justice secretary, has tabled an amendment to the Constitutional Reform and Governance Bill to impose a blanket ban on anyone disclosing information about Prince Charles, the Queen and Prince William. The move comes after a freedom of information (FoI) application revealed how Charles scuppered a £3 billion redevelopment of Chelsea Barracks. The property developers Christian and Nick Candy discovered that his aide met planning officials to discuss scrapping the scheme.”
PCTs may have diverted dementia services funding, MPs warn- Health Care Republic 18/03/10
"PCTs may have diverted a large proportion of £150m in funding for dementia services to other priorities, an investigation by MPs has found. More than two thirds of PCTs were unable to say how they spent their share of cash allocated under the National Dementia Strategy for England, a report published on Thursday reveals. Responding to a freedom of information request by the all-party parliamentary group (APPG) on dementia, just 31% of PCTs said how they had allocated their share of the £150m funds. The same percentage of PCTs could not determine how much of the funding had been spent on dementia services because they could not distinguish the funding from other resources. The report, ‘A Misspent Opportunity', calls for better auditing and monitoring of how dementia funding is spent.
Tax rules slow down non-dom arrivals in UK- Financial Times 14/03/10
“Tax changes aimed at raising millions in extra revenue from non-domiciled residents have slowed the number of wealthy business people moving to the country and contributed to a small number leaving it, according to the first in-depth study into Britain’s population of the international super-rich. Treasury data obtained under Freedom of Information rules combined with a survey of 25 leading wealth advisers in London indicate that restrictions brought in by the Finance Act 2008 are leading to about 25 per cent fewer “non-doms” applying to move to Britain.”
Patients Association releases research on out of hours care- The Patients Association 13/03/10
“The Patients Association has released information obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests and analysis of the unweighted results of the National GP Patient Survey quarters 1 and 2 2009/10 of over a million patients which highlighted wide variations in spending and reveals a league table of poor patient satisfaction with out of hours care. FOI results from 90 Trusts reveal that the average spend per head of the registered patient population was £9.00 but there was significant variation with the lowest spending less than £1.50 and the highest over £20.00.”
Underground row changes tack- The Independent 11/03/10
“
“Millions of pounds intended to fund respite breaks for voluntary carers in England has been spent on other areas of the NHS, according to two charities. The government announced in 2008 that it was doubling money set aside to allow long-term carers some time off - £50m this year and £100m next year. The Crossroads Care and Princess Royal Trust for Carers say only 23% of this year's cash is being spent on carers. NHS Trust representatives say money was moved to best meet local needs. The two charities say the problem is that the money was never ring-fenced by the government and simply added to existing health budgets. Some trusts have no idea how much money they received towards respite breaks, the charities claim.(…) The charities based their analysis on responses to Freedom of Information requests from 100 primary care trusts.”
Lord Ashcroft's secret tax deal saved him millions- The Times 02/03/10
“Lord Ashcroft, the Tory deputy chairman and its most high-profile donor, struck a private deal ten years ago to save himself tax on his overseas income, it emerged yesterday. The billionaire peer stunned many in his party when he revealed himself as a non-dom despite repeated assurances to the contrary by senior Conservatives (…) Lord Ashcroft issued his statement after the Cabinet Office was forced under freedom of information rules to publish terms of the deal under which he assumed his seat in the Lords in October 2000 after twice having his nomination rejected. He made the “solemn and binding” undertaking to Mr Hague on March 23, 2000. The document does not refer to tax. It gives his “unequivocal assurance” to take up permanent UK residence within the year.”Regional
Queen rock star condemns Welsh badger cull- Wales Online 23/03/10
“A badger cull in West Wales was the “very first resort” of Assembly ministers “unwilling to listen to their own advisers”, a court heard yesterday.
Carlisle Council to consult over plans for flats for homeless families- The Carlisle News & Star 16/03/10
“Campaigners fighting plans to build flats for homeless families off Newtown Road, Carlisle, have won a major concession from the city council. It has promised to consult nearby residents on the suitability of the proposed site, a former bowling green between Wood Street and Bright Street. There was an outcry when details of the £1.8m scheme emerged after our sister newspaper, The Cumberland News, used the Freedom of Information Act to obtain information. A petition against it quickly attracted nearly 200 signatures. The council’s executive had been expected to release the land for the development yesterday. That will now not happen, at least until after the consultation.”
Housing on Clifton and Gamston green belt is 'inevitable'- Thisisnottingham.co.uk 12/03/10
“It is "inevitable" that thousands of homes will be built on green- belt land at Clifton and Gamston, councillors have secretly been advised.
Top-secret Wirral Council letter to library inquiry chairman Sue Charteris- Wirral Globe 11/03/10
“A top-secret letter to the chairman of an inquiry into the closure of Wirral libraries - which to date has been kept from public view - has finally emerged. Wirral Council sought to keep their response to the draft report by inquiry inspector Sue Charteris under wraps. But a Freedom of Information request to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport has brought the document into the public domain. The council sparked a public outcry last year when it ruled that 11 libraries plus leisure centres, swimming pools and public halls should close. The plan was "called in" by the DCMS, which told the authority a local inquiry must be held. In the days before the inquiry's findings were revealed, the Labour and Liberal Democrat administration made the bombshell announcement that it had withdrawn the closure plan.”
Big brother council watching your bins- Woking Informer 10/03/10
“Woking Borough Council has been revealed as one of the 68 local authorities in England that has installed 'privacy-invading' microchips in its wheelie-bins. The discovery was made after campaign group Big Brother Watch sent a Freedom of Information Request to every council in the country to find out if they micro-chipped bins used for household rubbish collections. Local authorities have installed the chips to locate missing or stolen bins and return them to their owners, but the devices are also capable of weighing a bin's contents, in response to increased pressure from central government to reduce household waste and increase recycling. However campaigners have argued any monitoring is an infringement of human rights. The Big Brother Watch report states: "Placing microchips in bins capable of monitoring the content or weight of household refuse produces yet another piece of data for the state on an individual's private life that it has no right to have.”
Scotland
Ministers knew rail link could miss 2014 Games- The Herald 29/03/10
"Ministers were warned the Glasgow Airport Rail Link faced delays that could lead to it being completed only after the 2014 Commonwealth Games, despite a series of public assurances it was on track. Documents released to The Herald under Freedom of Information legislation have revealed that contingency plans factoring in delays due to difficulties in relocating facilities within the airport campus were drawn up by Transport Scotland five months before Garl was mothballed. The Government agency insisted yesterday it had drawn up separate plans that would have seen work completed by November 2013, and that Garl had been cancelled because of cuts imposed by Westminster, but it refused to provide details of the these plans.
Conflicting statistics in school nurses row- Caledonian Mercury 12/03/10
“The provision of school nurses in Scotland has become the focus of the latest pre-election spat between Labour and the SNP (…) Labour published new figures yesterday which, it claimed, showed that the SNP administration had not only failed to live up to the school nurses pledge but that it would take 27 years to fulfil the commitment at the current rate. Jackie Baillie, Labour’s health spokeswoman, argued this just was the latest in a line of broken promises, referring to the Scottish Government’s failure to stick to its promises to provide children with two hours of PE and five days of outdoor education too (…) Labour obtained the figures under the Freedom of Information Act. According to these figures, the number of school nurses in Scotland has gone up from 308 to 330 since 2007. Labour insisted this increase fell short of the “doubling” which the SNP claimed it would achieve in office.”
Scotland Office probed over charity advertising- civilsociety.co.uk 9/3/10
“A Freedom of Information request has been lodged with the Scotland Office to find out what action is being taken against charities that claim on TV ads to be UK-wide but do not actually operate in Scotland. Mr Alastair McLean – who bears no relation to the Fundraising Standards Board chief executive of the same name – lodged the question a week ago after becoming annoyed at seeing a number of charities promote themselves on Scottish TV when they did not deliver services north of the border.”
International
EU drafts warn of biofuels' link to hunger- Reuters 5/3/10
“The European Union's promotion of plant-based biofuels will raise EU farm incomes and agricultural commodity prices, but could create food shortages for the world's poorest consumers, draft EU reports show. The EU has a legal target to get a tenth of its road transport fuels from renewable sources such as biofuels by 2020. For EU farmers hit by falling incomes, Europe's 5 billion euros-per-year ($6.84 billion) biofuels market is coveted as a source of new revenues. Impact studies drafted for EU policymakers -- included in 116 documents released to Reuters under freedom of information laws -- predict that current biofuel policies will boost EU farm incomes by 3.5 percent in 2020.”
No comments:
Post a Comment