Martin Rosenbaum

Only 44% of Reform voters said they had watched BBC news in the past 12 months, compared to 61% of Greens, 65% of Tories, 69% of Labour voters and 73% of LibDems.

I also looked at what the latest @britishelectionstudy.com data tells us about the leisure activities of different party supporters, and this was the most striking comparison - Reform voters are much less likely to get their news from the BBC
rosenbaum6.substack.com/p/politics-p...

This table shows the average score for each party’s voters on a scale for each of the 'big five' personality dimensions

What are the links between personality and party support? I've examined the latest @britishelectionstudy.com data for the most recent evidence ....
rosenbaum6.substack.com/p/politics-p...

Reminder: On Tues 14 Oct, I'm talking to the ICO's Director of FOI Warren Seddon abut 20 years of FOI, as part of the ICO's annual online event - anyone can register via here: ico.org.uk/about-the-ic...

Data Protection Practitioners' Conference This year’s DPPC will take place online on Tuesday 14 October 2025.

I'm taking part in an online discussion about 20 years of FOI with the ICO's Director of FOI, Warren Seddon, as part of the ICO's annual online conference (DPPC 2025) on Tues 14 Oct - open to anyone, you can sign up at ico.org.uk/about-the-ic...

This is a fascinating article, full of detail, for anyone interested in access to government records and processes for their preservation

Lots of very interesting detail in this ...

Since MRPs are in the news, this is what I wrote in May after a British Polling Council conference … more here: rosenbaum6.substack.com/p/maybe-righ...

She says that the ICO will next be focusing its attention on the FOI performance of local authorities

FOI in action: advocating for transparency and driving change this ‘Universal Access to Information Day’ Each year, on 28 September, we observe the International Day for Universal Access to Information.

A useful new blog from the ICO's Deborah Clark, providing a good summary of how the ICO sees its recent measures to improve FOI compliance by public authorities - ico.org.uk/about-the-ic...

The ICO has today published its own new introductory guides for journalists, academics and small businesses about how to use FOI and information rights - ico.org.uk/for-the-publ...

Another plug for this piece, justified surely by all the comments received telling me how 'fascinating' & 'insightful' it is, and setting aside the suspicion that they are, ironically perhaps in the circumstances, AI-generated...

Scottish ministers rebuked for blocking FOI on Indyref Supreme Court case Ministers have been criticised by Scotland’s transparency watchdog for wrongly attempting to block a freedom of information (FOI) request on the lord advocate’s reference to the Supreme Co...

Interesting point that the Scottish government’s refusal to provide screenshots of its searches for the requested info is inconsistent with its practice in other recent FOI cases. www.scottishlegal.com/articles/sco... @katysclark.bsky.social

Generative complaints The UK's major complaints services are receiving increasing numbers of cases to investigate, and the use of generative AI chatbots might be a cause.

The UK's major complaints services are receiving increasing numbers of cases to investigate, and the use of generative AI chatbots might be a cause.
rosenbaum6.substack.com/p/generative...

Good event coming up for those interested in FOI ...

Generative complaints The UK's major complaints services are receiving increasing numbers of cases to investigate, and the use of generative AI chatbots might be a cause.

The UK's major complaints services are receiving increasing numbers of cases to investigate, and the use of generative AI chatbots might be a cause.
rosenbaum6.substack.com/p/generative...

Consultation exercise now open on the Bill to strengthen FOI law in Scotland - your chance to express your views on the proposals ...

Freedom of Information statistics: April to June 2025 This page gives Freedom of Information statistics for central government bodies from April to June 2025.

The newly published govt FOI stats are available at www.gov.uk/government/s...

This shows the dire FOI position at the Foreign Office - in the latest FOI figures, Q2 of 2025, their FOI responses were late on 42% of occasions

This chart (from govt stats for Q2 of 2025) shows how FOI requests to UK central govt are up on last year - notably Home Office, DWP, Treasury (it's not because of last year's gen elec, similar comparison applies to other previous quarters)

Latest quarterly FOI stats out today show:
1) Big increase in FOI requests to govt, esp for Home Office, DWP, Treasury
2) Delays at FCDO are still terrible
3) National Archives is at last sorting out its huge backlog caused by transfer of MoD personnel files

This really was a great event - do watch it back if you couldn't make it!

How FOI feeds into public conversation Freedom of Information often results in news stories and research. Here are some examples.

www.mysociety.org/2025/09/03/h... The 'citations' page on WhatDoTheyKnow gathers together #FOI requests which have fed into news, research or campaigns - or brought significant changes to democracy. #freedomofinformation

The case involves legal advice held by PSNI about security costs and gold mining companies (whose process involves the use of explosives). The complaint was made to the ICO in November 2021, and it is still far from clear when a decision might be reached on releasing the material.

The Upper Tribunal decision is here: assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/68b5b5...

Normally the ICO expects a public authority to give them access to whatever information an FOI complainant is seeking, so that it can take an informed decision on whether it should be disclosed. In this case PSNI has seemed determined to stop the ICO seeing the legal advice material.

The Upper Tribunal has just published its decision in the legal saga surrounding the ICO's oldest live FOI case, which is nearly four years old. It ruled the ICO is entitled to require a resistant Police Service of NI to give it a copy of the information, to help it assess if it should be released.

The Freedom of Information Act at 25: What next for freedom of information? | Institute for Government The event includes proposals and discussion about how the Freedom of Information system can improve for the future.

Next Weds, I'm chairing a Freedom of Info anniversary event @instituteforgovernment.org.uk with a great line-up: @jennacorderoy.bsky.social @itscrowbot.bsky.social @benworthy.bsky.social @lynnwyeth.bsky.social John Edwards & Lord Falconer

Join us! www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/event/foi-ac...

Event Bill Brunch: FOI Reform - extending rights and strengthening duties In conjunction with Common Weal. Free Online Wednesday 3 September at 11:30AM to 12:30PM GMT

CFoIS recently announced a series of briefings on the Freedom of Information Reform (Scotland) Bill, called ‘Bill Brunches’. The third Bill Brunch will be held in conjunction with the Common Weal, the title is “FOI Reform - extending rights and strengthening duties”. It will explain and discuss the purpose and impact of the FoI Reform Bill which was introduced to the Scottish Parliament by Katy Clark MSP on 2nd June 2025.

These Bill Brunches will be an hour long, taking place online, with CFoIS leading them. Keep an eye on the news page of our website for more details. Tickets for the third Bill Brunch are available to book via EventBrite now.

CFoIS announces a series of briefings on the FoI Reform Bill, called ‘Bill Brunches’.

Find out more about the third event, in conjunction with @thecommonweal.bsky.social, below and book a ticket here: www.eventbrite.com/e/1586413658...

#FoISAReform25 #freedomofinformation #humanrights #event #foi

User-requested data Our users can request additional breakdowns of data that are already in the public domain. These are published as user requested data (URD) pages. These pages contain a summary of the data and its breakdowns, an XLS or CSV file download, and any links to related content. URDs can be used to publish: ● further breakdowns of data that have already been published ● lower-level data of existing higher-level datasets, providing they are not disclosive ● linked or combined data from different sources that are already in the public domain ● commissioned tables that are based on existing data and have been directly requested by stakeholders

ONS ad hocs are full of treasure www.ons.gov.uk/alladhocs #datadiscovery #opendata

We've updated the APPG Register Difference Detector for the last release pages.mysociety.org/appg-members...