Rob Edwards

Using freedom of information legislation

a seminar on freedom of information, Napier University, Edinburgh, 27 October 2008

Hello. I'm glad to be here. It's daunting to give my views rather than report other people’s. First here is a brief overview of what I’m planning to say in the short time available.

experience with freedom of information

excuses, excuses - the bad old days

these days - a change for the better

new excuses - other problems

exercising your right to know

experience with freedom of information

Revealed: the Cairngorm railway 'scandal'

from Sunday Herald, 06 July 2008

Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) has been accused by the Forestry Commission of trying to hide the multi-million pound problems plaguing the controversial Cairngorm mountain railway.

Internal documents from the commission reveal that many of the facilities at the ski resort on the Cairngorm estate near Aviemore are badly in need of repair. Buildings are leaking, sewage discharge limits are being breached and the train’s undercarriage has not been properly checked.

Bringing the facilities up to scratch could cost up to £2 million of public money, the documents disclose. If the funicular railway has to shut, £6 million would have to be found to reinstate the land, and a £2.7 million grant from the European Union would have to be repaid.

M74 will undermine air pollution targets, ministers told

from Sunday Herald, 06 July 2008

The government’s plan to extend the M74 into Glasgow will undermine targets to cut air pollution and combat climate chaos, according to secret advice given to ministers.

A memo from officials to the former environment minister, Ross Finnie, in 2005 warned that building the five-mile, six-lane motorway would breach Glasgow’s air quality objective and significantly hamper plans to cut carbon emissions from transport.

But the M74 extension was still given the go-ahead by the previous Labour and Liberal Democrat coalition, and has been backed by the current Scottish Nationalist government. The groundbreaking ceremony to launch construction work in May was headed by the First Minister, Alex Salmond.

Scottish civil servants take 36 flights a day

from Sunday Herald, 29 June 2008

Civil servants have failed to kick their flying habit. In the last year Scottish government officials have spent £1 million of public money taking 8,700 flights between Scotland and England.

On average they made 36 flights every working day, mostly between Edinburgh and London. They also flew regularly to Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds and Inverness.

As part of its bid to “go greener”, the Scottish government is urging members of the public to “choose not to fly when there's a suitable alternative”. The vast majority of the journeys made by civil servants can be easily done by train.

The green leaders who chose to drive

from Sunday Herald, 22 June 2008

They urge everyone else to leave their cars at home to help save the planet, then they jump into theirs.

The board members of the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) made five times more journeys by car than by train last year - and claimed ten times more in expenses for them.

3,000 government car trips under fire

01 June 2008

 

Scottish ministers and senior officials have made nearly 3,000 journeys in government limos, averaging 80 a week, while telling members of the public to use their cars less.

The Sunday Herald has obtained official details of all the occasions on which ministerial cars have been used between 16 May 2007 and 31 January 2008. Top of the list is the finance minister, John Swinney, with exactly 500 trips, closely followed by the First Minister, Alex Salmond, with 488.

PFI: the £50 billion scam

from Sunday Herald, 18 May 2008

Private companies could pocket up to £50 billion in profits from investing in schools, hospitals and other public building projects, an investigation by the Sunday Herald has revealed.

Local authorities, health trusts and other public agencies will end up paying up to twice as much as they need to for the 700 developments planned or built under the UK government’s Private Finance Initiative (PFI).

The revelations, based on tens of thousands of pages released under freedom of information laws, have confirmed critics’ worst fears. PFI has turned out to be “a huge scam”, “a total taxpayer rip-off” and “a cynical accounting fiddle”, they say.

Scottish ministers can block nuclear stations

28 April 2008

Any proposal to build a new nuclear power station in Scotland could be blocked by the Scottish government, according to internal documents released today.

A series of emails between civil servants in June 2005 confirms that Scottish ministers have devolved legal powers to reject applications for new power reactors north of the border.

Safety ban on nuclear bomb work

from Sunday Herald, 27 April 2008

Vital work at Britain’s nuclear bomb factory has been halted for months because of safety fears, preventing Trident warheads from being shipped to and from the Clyde. 

The ban on crucial maintenance at the Burghfield plant in Berkshire is believed to be the first time the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has ever been obliged to stop working on nuclear weapons. The implications, say critics, are “far reaching”. 

Managers of ageing bomb dismantling facilities have been struggling for the last six years to remedy over 1,000 safety flaws uncovered by the government’s Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII). But deadlines have been repeatedly broken. 

Now the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE), which runs Burghfield, has been forced to cease “live nuclear work” while outstanding safety problems are fixed. The stoppage has been in place since at least December, though it was only admitted by AWE last week.

Labour minister rejected advice on flawed schools scheme

from Sunday Herald, 20 April 2008

A former Labour minister rejected advice from senior officials to delay a deeply flawed and highly controversial £100 million plan for new schools and homes in Stirling and Dunblane, the Sunday Herald can reveal.

Top secret documents disclose that the deputy communities minister in 2005, Johann Lamont, was strongly urged by government planners to call in the application for consideration by ministers. The plans were lambasted by advisers as “questionable”, “worrying” and “poor”.

Stirling Council, which promoted the development, was also accused of “procedural failings” and of maximising profit at the expense of decent housing. “Stirling Council's judgement in carrying out its statutory duty under the terms of planning legislation has been heavily clouded by its conflict of interests,” warned the official advice to the minister.

Details on plutonium stores could ‘help terrorists’

17 April 2008

Releasing details of the plutonium stores at the Dounreay nuclear plant in Scotland could have a “far reaching” impact on national security, the UK’s freedom of information tsar has ruled.

Information Commissioner, Richard Thomas, has upheld a decision by the UK Atomic Energy Authority to withhold seven files on the storage and safety of “fissile material” and “special nuclear material” at the Caithness site.

Trouble ahead on breaches of European laws

from Sunday Herald, 06 April 2008

Ministers are preparing to face censure over alleged breaches of European laws meant to protect whales and birds of prey and to prevent pollution, an internal report obtained by the Sunday Herald reveals.

The Scottish government is also anticipating “potential problems” with legal action from the European Commission (EC) over the controversial wind farm proposed for the Isle of Lewis, fisheries policy, environmental assessments and sewage leakages in Campbeltown.

An up-to-date database of all the active legal disputes between the Scottish government and the EC has been released under freedom of information legislation. Details of the so-called “infraction cases” were kept secret until the Scottish Information Commissioner, Kevin Dunion, ordered that to end last December.

Revealed: the oil companies which breached safety rules

from Sunday Herald, 09 March 2008

The oil companies guilty of a series of safety breaches on North Sea rigs have been named and shamed by the government’s health and safety watchdog - but only after a freedom of information request by the Sunday Herald.

In the last three years Shell, Total, BP, Chevron, Maersk and other companies have all faced legal action from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), forcing them to fix flaws in their crucial safety and maintenance systems.

Numerous rules designed to reduce the risk of accidents, fires and explosions to prevent workers from being injured or killed have been broken. Fire doors, valves, and other critical safety equipment have been found to be faulty, and maintenance regimes inadequate.

The historic toilet in the way of a new Forth bridge

from Sunday Herald, 03 February 2008

The government’s controversial £4 billion plan to build another road bridge across the Firth of Forth is going to run into an unexpected hitch: a historic toilet.

A First World War latrine at Port Edgar in South Queensferry, along with a cell block, an air raid shelter and naval barracks, have all been put under legal protection by the government’s guardian of ancient monuments, Historic Scotland. But the buildings are directly in the way of the proposed new bridge.

The Sunday Herald can also reveal that another government agency, Transport Scotland, secretly tried to prevent the buildings from being protected in order to clear the path for the new bridge - a move that has been attacked as “inappropriate meddling” by environmentalists.

Green watchdog 'muzzled' on polluting farmers

from Sunday Herald, 03 February 2008

Scotland’s green watchdog held back a planned attack on polluting farmers after consulting government spin doctors, according to internal documents obtained by the Sunday Herald.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) completely rewrote a draft news release, after circulating it to ministerial media officials. An accusation that farmers’ leaders were being “misleading” was left out in favour of bland comments about the “key role” of agriculture in protecting the environment.

The revelation has prompted accusations from environmentalists that SEPA was “muzzled” by ministers in order not to offend the powerful farming lobby, though that is denied by SEPA and the Scottish government.

Scotland accused of 65 breaches of European laws

from Sunday Herald, 16 December 2007

Scotland has been accused by the European Union (EU) of 65 violations of laws meant to prevent pollution, protect wildlife and control waste, according to a secret government database released to the Sunday Herald.

The number of alleged breaches of European legal directives over the past six years is twice as high as previously admitted, prompting accusations yesterday that Scotland's record was "shocking" and had been "covered up".

The range of environmental crimes investigated by the EU is very broad. They include breaking rules on overfishing, hazardous waste, water pollution, sewage, radiation protection, plant imports, pesticides, birds of prey and pigs.

Safety warning at nuclear bomb plant

from New Scientist, 19 September 2007

Britain's nuclear bomb factory has been struggling to remedy as many as 1,000 safety defects uncovered by the government's official watchdog. And it has only been allowed to remain open because the Ministry of Defence says the work it does is vital.

The remarkable and, until now, secret story of the serious problems being faced by the nuclear weapons complex at Burghfield in Berkshire is revealed in 13 internal reports released by the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII) to New Scientist under freedom of information law.

£115 million handed out to 100 rich farmers

from Sunday Herald, 16 September 2007

A hundred of the richest farmers in Scotland have had a massive £115 million hand-out from the government over five years, the Sunday Herald can reveal.

More than 50 farmers, including some well-known members of the landed gentry, pocketed over £1 million each. Five received over £2 million each, and one lucky guy got £3.5 million.

The hand-outs have been lambasted as "galling" "astonishing" and even "virtually Biblical" by environmentalists. But they have been defended by farmers and landowners as "nothing to be ashamed of" because of the contribution they make to the rural economy.

UK nuclear accidents blamed on poor safety

from New Scientist, 30 August 2007

Two of the UK’s most serious nuclear weapons accidents in the 1980s were caused by long term lapses in safety procedures, according to newly declassified government reports released to New Scientist under freedom of information laws. The accidents look more serious than previously admitted by the Ministry of Defence (MoD).

Executive's bluff called on terrorist risks

from Sunday Herald, 26 August 2007

The risk of a terrorist attack was wrongly used by the Scottish Executive as an excuse to keep information about radioactive contamination of drinking water secret.

The Scottish Information Commissioner, Kevin Dunion, has found the Executive guilty of breaching freedom of information legislation by failing to provide documents from a file entitled "Release of Radionuclides in Drinking Water Systems".