Political and Ethnic Makeup of the Question Time Audience

Dear Sir or Madam,

I am writing to request information regarding the political and
ethnic make up of the studio audience of Question Time.
Specifically I am requesting information for the edition broadcast
on 22nd October 2009 (the 'BNP episode'). I would like the
information broken down by Age, whether they consider themselves
pro or anti Europe, which party they would vote for, whether they
fully support the leader of that party, what they consider their
ethnic make up to be, and whether they consider themselves to have
a disability.

I believe all these questions are put to audience members when they
apply to be on the programme, based on the application form at
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/qu....

I would also like information to demonstrate how these figures
compare to a) the typical make up of a Question Time audience and
b) the make up of the local population from which the audience was
sourced.

I understand it is typical for the audience to be drawn from the
local area in which the programme is filmed, would you be able to
confirm if this was the case for this episode or whether an
audience from a wider area was sourced.

Under Part VI of Schedule 1 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000
you are only obliged to release information held for ‘purposes
other than those of journalism, art or literature', and therefore
my request may not be covered under the scope FOIA. However, given
the great public interest in this case I believe that this
information should be released nonetheless. Any other relevant
information you could provide about this episode, or Question Time
in general would be greatly appreciated.

Yours faithfully,

Philip Chillag

Dear Rachael,

Many thanks for your response.

Yours sincerely,

Philip Chillag