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
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This person's Freedom of Information requests (approximately 38)
CETV of pensions of named individuals
Response by Cabinet Office to Francis Irving on .
Information not held.
Please find attached the reply to your recent FOI request
Regards
FOI Team
Room 405
70 Whitehall,
London, SW1A 2AS
E-ma...
Drafting history of the Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Bill
Response by Home Office to Francis Irving on .
Refused.
OFFICIAL
Dear Mr Irving
Thank you for your email. Please see the attached correspondence.
Yours Sincerely
FOI Team
C...
Drafting history of the Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Bill
Response by Cabinet Office to Francis Irving on .
Refused.
Please find attached the reply to your recent FOI request
Regards
FOI Team
1 Horse Guards Road
London
SW1A 2HQ...
FOI services bought from Public Partners
Successful.
I'm particularly interested in this company and its relationship to government.
Did you get further with this information?
[FOI #117851 email]
Dear Francis
Information Request
Further to your request for information, which we have now had time to
consider, please fi...
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-Lev...
Liverpool Big Society vanguard
Response by Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to Francis Irving on .
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 vangua...
Oscar project replacing COINS
Partially successful.
Have there been any updates since?
Area Information System
Response by Liverpool John Moores University to Francis Irving on .
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 App...
Liverpool City Council Finance peer review
Request to Improvement and Development Agency for local government by Francis Irving. Annotated by Francis Irving on .
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
Response by HM Revenue and Customs to Francis Irving on .
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 I...
Amounts paid per supplier
Clarification sent to Department of Energy and Climate Change by Francis Irving on .
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 response...
Online petitions documents from PICT
Response by House of Commons to Francis Irving on .
Successful.
Dear Mr Irving
You asked for the following information: "...electronic copies of any
documents produced by PICT discussing or evaluating the pos...
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 (ongoin...
One entry from the fact table of COINS
Follow up sent to Her Majesty’s Treasury by Francis Irving on .
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 .
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 use...
Bullying complaints and resolution
Response by Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue Service to Francis Irving on .
Successful.
Dear Ms Irving
Apologies for the delay, please find attached a letter and spreadsheet in
response to your request for information.
Kind regard...
Please find attached response
Regards,
Kevin Symm
Senior Information Officer
Legal Services
Liverpool City Council
Municipal Buildings...
Environmental standards of new sixth form building
Response by Hampton College to Francis Irving on .
Partially successful.
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST – FOI-10-0030
Dear Sir,
Your request for information has now been considered and the information
requested is given...
Environmental standards of main Hampton College building
Response by Cambridgeshire County Council to Francis Irving on .
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
Hampt...
Staff turmover at Dorchester Primary School
Response by Dorchester Primary School, Sutton to Francis Irving on .
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 t...
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 .
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 .
Partially successful.
response included in references for:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vero_Software
#wikipedia
Protected PDF writing software
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 sepa...
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-co...
This person's 492 annotations
Cost of translation services
Refused.
You hardly needed this test, Martin! There are plenty of requests from all sorts of names on this site where Liverpool didn't ask for proof of identity...
Due diligence prior to LDL takeover
Refused.
Speaking entirely from an FOI point of view, it is always wrong for a council to question the identity of a requester. Anyone can make an FOI request,...
Paul - to change typo in your name in the site, definitely worth trying the "Contact" button in the footer. WhatDoTheyKnow has a great team of voluntee...
Cost of translation services
Refused.
Martin - can you post a link to the request where identity was questioned?
Thanks!
Usage of London Underground & DLR stations
Successful.
Blog post with visualizations of the underground based on this data:
https://blog.scraperwiki.com/2014/04/visualising-the-london-underground-with-tab...
List of empty properties in Liverpool
Partially successful.
There's a more recent (late 2013) copy here: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/empty_properties_list_8
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…
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 uplo...
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/~/med...
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
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.htm...
Status Of Land In Gerrards Cross
Successful.
Blog post about Gerrards Cross land being sold in Singapore and Malaysia, referring to this request as important information for purchasers.
http://t...
Analysis of this by requester:
http://ncclols.blogspot.com/2010/08/and-discretionary-housing-payments-and.html
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
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
Tax Payers' Alliance blog post about this:
http://www.taxpayersalliance.com/bettergovernment/2010/09/one-junction-one-camera-182340.html