Are the UK's libraries at risk of book bans? #FOI data suggests people complain, books do get removed but anti-censorship stock policies mean the most complained about books have stayed on shelves:

The people cry out for bike storage hangers! #FOI reveals there's nearly 14,000 applications waiting for a space in Lambeth and almost 8,000 in Haringey:

Odd #FOI refusal - people complain about hospital parking fines to local newspaper, so it sends a request. Hospital says it doesn't hold info, but its (private) parking enforcement company is refusing to share info it has citing Section 43 commercial interests:

Potentially good news on the FOI restriction rumours. May be because the briefings did get some pushback. But it is one the comes around with depressing regularity.

Sometimes I wonder if public bodies just outsource thinking on whether #FOI information should be released to the ICO. Another refusal over councillors' unpaid council tax overturned, and better guidance might at least help some understand what exceptional looks like:

There's an #FOI request for all occasions. Including the World Cup. So, how many fake football shirts have been seized in the run-up to the tournament? clairemiller.net/2026/06/free...

We’re all about Freedom of Information successes here. It makes a change as usually getting an FOI answered, particularly from central government, can feel like an uphill struggle...

Yes, it is acceptable to use #FOI to win an argument. A Brighton pub 

Is limiting #FOI complaints a way of dealing with AI ‘overload’? Is the problem actually request slop (which we might already have the tools to deal with)?  Or unmet demand meeting an easy route past previous blockers (that might really need a better route)?

This week's #FOI stories apparently have a bit of a one-track mind. But if you want to know the item increasingly left on London's public transport, or how many of Ipswich's clocks are out of action (unfortunate typo in that one)... clairemiller.net/2026/06/free...

People using #FOI usually have a reason for making a request (like residents, campaigners, charities & journalists) But that doesn't mean public bodies should change approach depending on who asks: 

Bless the open web for trying to reinvent the best parts of LiveJournal in 2005 🙏

And then it stops being published as open data and you have to go back to FOI again.

Scottish public bodies have been warned not to take #FOI court action they are likely to lose…advice that could probably apply more widely. FOI stories that mostly avoided this this week...

If the Equality Act always was a toilet ban then there would have been evidence in Hansard, the media and from human rights bodies such as Liberty. The fact that there is no evidence of this whatsoever means that Stephenson is a liar.

A decade on from Brexit, I’ve been crunching the numbers for @theleaduk.bsky.social on how things have turned out. open.substack.com/pub/theleadu...

If ‘the real value of FOI is in the pages of local newspapers’...  

Being annoyed is a good starting place for an #FOI. And that’s how I ended up in a months-long ‘FOI row’ with Cardiff Bus - I got stuck waiting for lost or cancelled bus & wanted to know more...

The power of #FOI is you can ask for whatever information you want (you might not always get it). It's great for follow-ups – to official data or to another FOI.

Another week, another public body told to get its Freedom of Information efforts up to scratch. 

Slow responses, very unhelpful refusals, almost entirely blanked out documents, dragged out battles over info that turns out to just not be that incendiary... Nice to know it’s not just here...

The eye-watering cost of council meeting refreshments isn't quite what it used to be... This and other #FOI stories:

Should political parties be covered by #FOI The Scottish Information Commissioner has suggested its something to think about (not sure political parties would go for it).

Does inspiring an on-stage outburst from Liam Gallagher mean #FOI is cool?

The Cabinet Office is at it again (Freedom of Information-wise).  Turns out endlessly fighting #FOI requests is a costly business.

#FOI requests have a habit of leading to personal data breaches.  In an effort to avoid this, the ICO has put out some guidance on things to check before sending out responses.

Behold the by-election catechism: “Only x can win here” “Two horse race” Bar chart (often misleading) - “can’t win here” “Only (our candidate) can beat (candidate you don’t like)” “Vote (our party)” (under breath: don’t waste your time on splitters from (similar party”)

I love an #FOI request. I also love not sending an FOI request. As a data journalist, sometimes it’s easier to go digging through published data for the story rather than using FOI...

Sometimes #FOI requests don’t lead to a response. Whether it's repeated refusals or a never-ending wait for an answer, it's frustrating! Thankfully some people were successful:

Sometimes it seems no one ever learns. As well as this week's #FOI successes, there's also some fails:

#FOI can expose the gap between story and reality.  The tough line on assaults but few reported to police. Money promised but slow to arrive. Facilities provided but going unused.

Heading off to enjoy the sunny Bank Holiday?  Just watch your speed! #FOI shows the South West is the hotspot for caravans caught travelling too fast. This and more stories from this week:

One in eight people now start their #FOI with a chatbot. An ICO poll found 12% of sent a request after AI suggested it during research. For more, and some non-AI-assisted ideas:

All of this is just so frustratingly stupid as well as cruel and unnecessary. And it’s all because a small bunch of ridiculous busybodies couldn’t mind their own damned business. This benefits no one. It really is loathsome.

Thread of incomprehensible excerpts from the EHRC’s new guidelines on single-sex spaces. No alt text in thread unfortunately, but there is a link to the guidance itself. The amount of bother involved in all of this, turning a thing that wasn’t a problem into a massive problem for lots of people 🤦🏻‍♀️

This is a failure of journalism, on a really basic level, but it is also a failure of political leadership. It was going to fall simply in the basis of what the previous govt did. But Starmer somehow conspired to actively spread the impression it was rising.

What are 4 Keys to Effective Data Visualisation: 1. Understand Your Audience 2. Choose the Right Visualisation Type 3. Keep it Simple 4. Use Colour Wisely Learn more:

Should the Freedom of Information Act be used to call out councillors who are behind paying their council tax? The debate comes round as frequently as requests find councillors who need to pay up.

Want to start creating your own data visualisations? Flourish is a great (mostly) free tool for turning your datasets into great looking graphs and charts. It’s pretty simple to get started:

This week's #FOI stories: - the soaring numbers of lithium-ion battery fires - QR code parking scams - Snapchat - the social media crime hotspot Read more:

Dataviz of the day

The ICO is freelancing a transparency crackdown (and early indicators from Ontario's successful restricting of #FOI are not good). But while we can still make requests, here's this week's round-up of stories to provide some inspiration: clairemiller.net/2026/05/free...

"we've got something better than a legally enforceable ruling, we've got Elon Musk's word as a gentleman"

Cutting waste seems to involve a lot of #FOI requests (I hope FOI officers are cutting potentially wasted time by using Section 21 for the repeated requests)

want to file an open records request for that data? append the form to your request! it'll make it (more) obvious what you're looking for.

found an interesting form the government puts out? ask for the database it feeds. where there's an interesting form there's usually interesting data.

The one currently driving me nuts is everyone ending up sounding the same, even when they’re very different people. So the Reform candidate complaining about FOI refusals does it in the exact same tone as the ‘girl boss’ encouraging you to manifest your way into her great business opportunity.

Could publishing more information cut #FOI requests? Auditors suggested Torridge Council improves what it shares to reduce requests. But in the meantime what info has FOI unearthed elsewhere...

God, it really never gets old does it? He's just *brilliant*.

Information is a broad concept within the #FOI Act. It can mean numbers or statistics taken from a public body’s database. It can be emails, messages and WhatsApps (if you can get ’em)...