Does anyone know how I could go about making a FOI request asking how many fixed penalty fines have been issued to drivers sitting in the middle lane of a motorway for no apparent reason, since they were announced with a big media splash a few months ago? I am guessing not a lot?
First you have to decide to what authorities you are addressing the request - in this case presumably a list of police forces throughout Britain. Then you have to be specific about what you are asking - so, what Act and precisely what regulations are the ones you want to know about action being taken. Third, you would need to specify a start date and end date for the data you want. Certain types of data are exempt from the FOI Act, especially in law enforcement areas. If the data is already published somewhere, the authority does not have to fulfil the FOI request. If the data does not exist and the cost of collating it would be excessive, that is a reason for refusing the request. And finally, some authorities are deluged with FOI requests with no resources to respond to them, so they just ignore the more egregious requests and hope the matter is not appealed to the Commissioner.
I have not seen a motorway Police patrol car for months and months around Manchester. The M60 is pretty much a free for all.
Same here in the South. I did see one at the scene of an accident the other day on the M25, but mostly I just see the motorway wombles closing lanes and slowing traffic for what seems no reason at all... What is the point of these patrols? - I really don't see a lot of point to them... Back to the OP's post - I doubt if the number of middle lane hoggers getting tickets would be very hight at all - If it were the case, then there would be less middle lane hogging!!...The governmint could save a fortune and not bother extending lanes like on the M25 / M1 etc - Just gives these idiots another lane to hang about in doing 45mph...
My guess is that if you ask, all the authorities will either ignore your request or say that insufficient data is available. This was another one from the "good ideas club" - basically a sound idea but with absolutely no way of enforcing it...
I have made previous FOI requests from my former employer, they will charge you for every request and as Pete has stated they may ignore them. However they are duty bound to have a FOI request officer, and if you are not happy you can appeal to the Information Commissioner which most public bodies live in fear of.
