The Government’s plans to charge for FOI requests are really rather disappointing as the Government has previously had a relatively good record on FOI and in 2010, Eric Pickles even spoke out against Local Councils charging journalists for making FOI requests: “If town halls want to reduce the amount they spend on responding to freedom […] →Read more
A guest post Here are 366 Interesting things that we know because of FOI requests made using WhatDoTheyKnow.com – one for every day of the leap year. This list focuses mainly on information released during the last six months. Our right to access information is about to come under attack from those who want to […] →Read more
The Prince of Wales website lists the following Royal Households, I have cross-referenced this list of the public register of Data Controllers held by the ICO: (believe it or not there is an order of precedence for the Households, they are listed here in that order) Household of The Queen – (see register entry for […] →Read more
The Guardian reported that Prince Charles has been offered a veto over 12 government bills since 2005. By searching TheyWorkForYou (user friendly version of Hansard) I decided to start a list of all bills and measures for which consent was received (search results). Consent from Prince Charles (in capacity as Duke of Cornwall etc) Abolition […] →Read more
Many people are aware that Acts of Parliament require Royal Assent but Queen’s Consent and Prince’s Consent are less well understood. The extracts from Erskine May, 24th edition below show the wide ranging impact of this obscure provision. The obscurity of Parliamentary procedures is partly hidden from the public due to the exorbitant cost of […] →Read more
Many people are aware that Acts of Parliament require Royal Assent but Queen’s Consent and Prince’s Consent are less well understood. The extracts from Erskine May, 24th edition below show the wide ranging impact of this obscure provision. The obscurity of Parliamentary procedures is partly hidden from the public due to the exorbitant cost of […] →Read more
I have recently submitted an e-petition on fixed time limits for internal reviews. I was actually reasonably pleased to see today that more than 15 people had signed because even though I suspect most people would support it if they took the time to find abut the issue but I know that it isn’t exactly […] →Read more
“…I am writing to seven of my elected representatives in the European Parliament about the implications of EU procurement law with respect to Fair Trade. I really need your help to fix a problem with EU law. Recently the UK Government consulted on proposed procurement rules including “At least 50% of tea and coffee is […] →Read more
This FOI release reveals a lot of public support for going 100% fair trade on tea and coffee: “There were no comments that didn’t support inclusion of this criterion 50% fair trade]. The majority of those who responded on this criterion felt it was not ambitious enough and should be either increased to 100% for […] →Read more
Prime Minister’s Questions is televised and covered by the media and the right to question government ministers about the work of government departments is well known. The Parliament website describes it thus: “In addition to oral questions, MPs and Peers can ask government ministers questions for written answer. These are often used to obtain detailed […] →Read more