Make and explore Freedom of Information requests
Francis Irving
Joined WhatDoTheyKnow in 2007
Send message to Francis Irving
I coded WhatDoTheyKnow originally while working for mySociety, and help out a bit as a volunteer. In my personal capacity, I've made FOI requests about climate change, Liverpool and Government transparency.
I also sometimes make FOI requests on behalf of others.
You can follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/frabcus
Sign in to change password, subscriptions and more (Francis Irving only)
This person's 34 Freedom of Information requests
Dear Francis,
Return-path: [FOI #10375 email]
X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.1.7-deb (2006-10-05) on
master.pcc.me.uk
X-Spam-Le...
Liverpool Big Society vanguard
Partially successful.
by Department for Communities and Local Government to Francis Irving on 30 December 2010.
Partially successful.
Dear Mr Irving,
I have been asked to re-send to you the email below, which comprises the
response to your request about Liverpool Big Society vangu...
Oscar project replacing COINS
Partially successful.
Have there been any updates since?
Area Information System
Information not held.
by Liverpool John Moores University to Francis Irving on 8 October 2010.
Information not held.
Dear Mr Irving
Please find attached the following documents in response to your request for information below:
1. LJMU disclosure letter
2. LJMU Ap...
Liverpool City Council Finance peer review
Request to Improvement and Development Agency for local government by Francis Irving. Annotated by Francis Irving on 8 September 2010.
Refused.
No particular reason - I just knew that IDeA wrote the document, so thought it made most sense to ask them.
List of accounts in the Government Banking Service
Refused.
by HM Revenue and Customs to Francis Irving on 29 July 2010.
Refused.
Dear Mr Irving,
I attach a note, clarifying our use of the s44 exemption.
Yours sincerely
Teresa Chance
Teresa Chance Central Policy - Freedom of...
Amounts paid per supplier
Clarification
sent to Department of Energy and Climate Change by Francis Irving on 13 July 2010.
Long overdue.
Thanks for your email saying that you need more time to consider the public interest.
I note that DEFRA have released full information in respons...
Online petitions documents from PICT
Successful.
by House of Commons to Francis Irving on 12 July 2010.
Successful.
Dear Mr Irving
You asked for the following information: "...electronic copies of any
documents produced by PICT discussing or evaluating the po...
Descriptions of "P" and "S" series charges in Aspire contract
Partially successful.
I'm interested in the charges relating to the actual business applications, which maintain our tax records. These seem to be:
Service related (ongoi...
One entry from the fact table of COINS
Follow up
sent to Her Majesty’s Treasury by Francis Irving on 7 June 2010.
Successful.
Thanks Paul,
Yes, the COINS database release fully satisfies my request.
Much appreciated!
Francis
Contracts for Aspire deal with Capgemini
Follow up
sent to HM Revenue and Customs by Francis Irving on 27 April 2010.
Refused.
Thanks Eileen. What I really wanted was actual contractual documents, but thank you for attaching the overview and the two reports. They'll be very us...
Bullying complaints and resolution
Successful.
by Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue Service to Francis Irving on 16 February 2010.
Successful.
Dear Ms Irving
Apologies for the delay, please find attached a letter and spreadsheet in
response to your request for information.
Kind regar...
City Car Club spaces
Successful.
by Liverpool City Council to Francis Irving on 1 February 2010.
Successful.
Please find attached response
Regards,
Kevin Symm
Senior Information Officer
Legal Services
Liverpool City Council
Municipal Buildings...
Environmental standards of new sixth form building
Partially successful.
by Hampton College to Francis Irving on 1 February 2010.
Partially successful.
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST – FOI-10-0030
Dear Sir,
Your request for information has now been considered and the information
requested is give...
Environmental standards of main Hampton College building
Information not held.
by Cambridgeshire County Council to Francis Irving on 19 January 2010.
Information not held.
Dear Francis,
Thank you for your Freedom of Information Request received at
Cambridgeshire County Council on 18 January. The Local Authority for
Hamp...
Staff turmover at Dorchester Primary School
Successful.
by Dorchester Primary School, Sutton to Francis Irving on 17 December 2009.
Successful.
Dear Mr. Irvin.
The information as requested is below:
Number of staff employed 51: 22 Full time; 27 part time; 2
casual
Turnover: 2006/2007 2 FT...
Libel and the BDO report for HEFCE on LMU
Request to Higher Education Funding Council for England by Francis Irving. Annotated by Richard Taylor on 23 November 2009.
Successful.
WhatDoTheyKnow has removed the substantive response from this correspondence thread as we were alerted to the fact it contained material some consider...
Details of grant awarded to VI Group (now Vero Software) for development of modelling technologies
Request to South West of England Regional Development Agency by Francis Irving. Annotated by John Cross on 25 October 2009.
Partially successful.
response included in references for:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vero_Software
#wikipedia
Protected PDF writing software
Request to University of Southampton by Francis Irving. Annotated by Francis Irving on 9 October 2009.
Successful.
Someone wrote to me to say the following:
"Adobe Acrobat is not covered by the full CHEST agreement so is not site licensed for every machine. A sep...
Copy of accounts as available for inspection under the Audit Commission Act
Partially successful.
I went to view the accounts and have written an article on my experience:
http://www.rtaylor.co.uk/looking-at-some-of-the-detail-in-cambridge-city-c...
Emails between Damian McBride and Derek Draper
Refused.
by Prime Minister’s Office to Francis Irving on 20 July 2009.
Refused.
Dear Mr Irving,
The response to this request was included with the response to your other
request, available here:
[1]http://www.whatdotheyknow.co...
Rejected for Data Protection Act reasons - the emails contain highly personal remarks.
Refuse and recycling collection contract signed with Veolia
Successful.
by Liverpool City Council to Francis Irving on 19 March 2009.
Successful.
Our ref: WT/ FOI & EIR 29133
Dear Mr Irving
Re: Your Freedom of Information Act 2000/ Environmental Information
Regulations 2004 request.
I...
Online petitions documents from PICT
Information not held.
by House of Lords to Francis Irving on 5 March 2009.
Information not held.
Dear Mr. Irving,
In an email message to the House of Lords Information Office dated 6th
February 2009 you requested, under the Freedom of Information...
FOI services bought from Public Partners
Successful.
by Home Office to Francis Irving on 13 January 2009.
Successful.
Dear Sir/ Madam,
You should have received an email from the Home Office within the last 24
hours inviting you to take part in a short online survey...
This person's 489 annotations
Money spent in 2010-11 FY on Digital Economy Act and estimates for spending in 2011-12 FY
Successful.
Blog post by Slightly Right of Centre who made this request
http://www.slightlyrightofcentre.com/2011/06/ofcom-to-spend-estimated-59m-as-real.html...
ICO Website Favicon cost…
Request to Information Commissioner’s Office by Mark Bowen. Annotated by Francis Irving on 4 February 2011.
Successful.
A thread on Hacker News with some debate about whether the favicon was expensive or not:
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2175321
Liverpool Direct BT contracts
Successful.
Julian received a paper copy of the unredacted contract from the council in person, and has scanned it in as PDFs.
He's given me these, and I've upl...
Liverpool Direct BT contracts
Successful.
The ICO decision notice ruling that the council must release the unredacted contract is FS50273227. You can read it here:
http://www.ico.gov.uk/~/me...
I'm confused - that BarclaysCycleHireUsageStats.zip that Alex links to doesn't require registration to download.
Aren't they therefore providing the...
UoL VC appointment report
Successful.
A blog post from the requester, about Vice-Chancellors and tuition fees, using this request:
http://www.freesteel.co.uk/wpblog/2010/11/fees-for-vcs/...
Electoral Commission Partnership Grants
Successful.
Blog post referring to these figures:
http://www.freesteel.co.uk/wpblog/2010/10/ushahidi-and-election-monitoring/
previous FOI requests received
Partially successful.
The original response to this request was not redacted fully, and has been removed for privacy reasons. The new files were resent by the MOD, redacted...
Qualifying oil fields datasets
Request to Department of Energy and Climate Change by Julian Todd. Annotated by Francis Irving on 23 September 2010.
Partially successful.
For some context, a paper from 2005 by Andrew Carr (including a photo of him) on maximising economic recovery in and around existing North Sea fields....
Another blog post about this:
http://ncclols.blogspot.com/2010/09/chocolate-teapots-pastry-crash-helmets.html
Money Spent on Lift Maintenance
Partially successful.
Back story by requester:
http://ncclols.blogspot.com/2010/05/lift-issues.html
Blog post following response:
http://ncclols.blogspot.com/2010/09/we...
Two Lib Dem blog posts about this request:
http://www.libdemvoice.org/why-commission-a-report-if-youre-determined-to-ignore-its-conclusions-20945.ht...
Status Of Land In Gerrards Cross
Request to South Bucks District Council by Steve F. Annotated by Francis Irving on 20 September 2010.
Successful.
Blog post about Gerrards Cross land being sold in Singapore and Malaysia, referring to this request as important information for purchasers.
http://...
Junction of Forest Road E17 and Winsbeach E17; banned left turn.
Request to Waltham Forest Borough Council by A Lovell. Annotated by Francis Irving on 20 September 2010.
Successful.
Tax Payers' Alliance blog post about this:
http://www.taxpayersalliance.com/bettergovernment/2010/09/one-junction-one-camera-182340.html
Analysis of this by requester:
http://ncclols.blogspot.com/2010/08/and-discretionary-housing-payments-and.html
Blog post referring to this request:
http://witteringsfromwitney.blogspot.com/2010/08/those-3000-crimes.html
BBC, ITV and Channel 4 stance on Freeview HD DRM
Request to Office of Communications by Ray Corrigan. Annotated by Francis Irving on 20 September 2010.
Refused.
Blog post by requester:
http://b2fxxx.blogspot.com/2010/08/freedom-of-information-request-to-ofcom.html
Blog post criticising the time it took for this request to get a response:
http://dizzythinks.net/2010/08/19-month-foi.html
Legal department structure
Request to Office of Communications by Sarah Fuller. Annotated by Francis Irving on 20 September 2010.
Successful.
Blog post commenting on the response to this request:
http://www.ofcomwatch.co.uk/2010/08/ofcoms-legal-team-2-people/
Payments to Harold Tinworth and/or his Company
Partially successful.
Blog post referring to this request:
http://ncclols.blogspot.com/2010/08/shocking-news.html
Contact Islington issue resolution performance
Request to Islington Borough Council by william perrin. Annotated by Francis Irving on 20 September 2010.
Successful.
Blog post thanking officers for release of this information:
http://www.kingscrossenvironment.com/2010/08/contactcentredatat.html
New policy on whatdotheyknow.com
Partially successful.
Does anyone know what NSG stands for, in 13.pdf?
"This should provide a good example for our own disclosure register. A similar report should be pos...
Liverpool City Council Finance peer review
Request to Improvement and Development Agency for local government by Francis Irving. Annotated by Francis Irving on 8 September 2010.
Refused.
No particular reason - I just knew that IDeA wrote the document, so thought it made most sense to ask them.
Please send me the results of your investigation into the continued obstruction of Grove Road
Request to Hertfordshire County Council by J Edwards. Annotated by Francis Irving on 19 August 2010.
Successful.
A response has been deleted from this request.
It was sent on 4th May 2010, and had an attached PDF containing a copy of the requested report. The c...
FOI Request - spend on chaplaincy 09/10
Request to South Staffordshire and Shropshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust by Robert Christian. Annotated by Francis Irving on 17 August 2010.
Successful.
Found it - and am resending request.
