Amazing what washes up on shore, isn't it?

I set myself the task a little while back of finding all of the cold war structures that were in Wales.  Found quite a few to be honest, and it showed me a lot of different things that I never knew either.  So what was my next task?  Well how about finding out about some military ships and seeing if they can be raised and restored?  Only one way to find out!

So where to start?  If only there was some way of finding out where there were some ships wrecked between 1900 and 2000?  Now the good thing about that one is that I asked what to do to raise a ship.  If you look further down the list on that one then you notice that there is something there about how to raise a ship.  So now we have the basics.  A list of ships and how to raise them.  So is that the only thing that we need?  Surely it would be easier to just restore a ship that is already above the sea?

So who would have the coolest ships?  The Ministry of Defence!  So, with this in mind, let's ask them for a list of their old ships and what they do with them after they have served their purpose.  One of the most interesting things is that they are sometimes sold to other countries (another FoI request there, maybe?  I should also point out that a lot of ships  are disposed of by the UK Ship Recycling Strategy).  

The other is that they also gave me the amount of submarines that they owned, too.  So would any of these be used for a museum?  Should be an interesting situation.  Now it should be pointed out the Department for culture media and sport do not offer any guidelines for the creation of a museum.  So there is no reason not to use a ship.  

There is something that I haven't mentioned.  Underwater mines.  When WW2 was going on, the MoD used underwater mined to make sure that the UK was safe, so wouldn't it be useful to know where they are so that we don't have to worry about going into them?  The Maritime and Coastguard agency didn't have any information on this one. So, let's turn to the people who may know, the MoD.  They would be able to tell us, surely?  Yes they may, and don't call me surely…  (Sorry, couldn't resist that one!).  Now, there is a European agency called the European Defence Agency, maybe they could give us more details?  Probably, but I will have to tell you when they get back to me I am afraid.

So what about money that would help us to restore the ship?  Would that be available?  Lets try the Advisory Committee on National Historic Ships.  They give funding to old ships to restore them to their former glory.  Looking at the amounts that they handed out they don't give a lot, but it is still something. A quick look at the national lottery fund give us SOME idea of sources of money to help restore the ship.

Would someone be willing to lend us items for this museum ship? The National Maritime Museum? Well, it turns out that this information is available to the public, so no need for FoI there.  

So what have we learnt from this?  There there are tonnes of wrecks around the UK and there are still a lot of ships that can be used.  We also know how to use them and where to purchase them. Seems an interesting idea for us, doesn't it?

Whoever said that there's no smoke without fire, never heard of a smoke machine...

Sometimes doing this job I get blind alleys and things that distract me.  For example, when I asked the foreign office for help getting information on how to trade weapons, informed me that I had the wrong department.  Due to the the amazing section 16, however there is no such thing as a total blind alley.  That doesn't mean that you don't get people trying to pull the wool over your eyes; it’s almost a case of smoke and mirrors.

As I was investigating Cardiff DPRTE, this became more and more apparent.  When you are investigating an arms fair, it seems that people are not that interested in giving you that much information. Now the fair was in Cardiff, so wouldn't it be logical to ask Cardiff Council what they have done for this arms fair?  Now I got a bit suspicious when they contacted me back and asked for the specific departments I was refering too.  When I asked for all of them they got back in touch with me to say that this would have been too much work for them.  

As explained previously the cost of getting an FoI cannot exceed £650 to get.  So why did they want the specific departments?  The cynic in me says to make sure that it was to made the request to wide to get or to specific; the realist in me says because they needed it to  narrow it for my benefit. Not only that but I sent an FoI request to South Wales Police and they NEVER got back to me.

So who to go to next?  Well I thought that I would go straight to the horse's mouth and ask some of the defence organisations attached. So the Defence Infrastructure Organisation, Crown Commercial Service, & Export Credits Guarantee Department (They all had a stand in the fair) were contacted about their involvement in the fairs. The first question is, which governmental organisations they contact on the matter?  The Export Credits Guarantee Department did not attend; interesting. Crown Commercial Service have yet to get back in touch with me (At time of writing). A query about the Defence Infrastructure Organisation's publicity of the event has yet to be answered either.  

Shouldn't these organisation, who are organisations the event, have more information about their event?  I mean they aren't the ones who are doing this?  The Ministry of Defence are the ones who are the most interested in selling the arms (Or the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills) who would be interested.  As it is a defence matter, sure one of the  defence companies has some knowledge of this event?  No Smoke without fire.

The issue is that one of my FoI requests came back in a rather unexpected fashion.  You see, I asked the Defence Infrastructure Organisation which governmental organisations they have dealt with in regard to the Cardiff DPRTE… You know, because is would show the web of who is in “In charge” of the event…  And they refered me to BIP Solutions… Eh?  Who are they?  It turns out that:

[They are for] effective and efficient procurement of goods and services can benefit government, people and businesses. [Their] goal is to support and improve every stage of this vital supply chain process through the development of skills, knowledge and cutting-edge technology.

So it appears that the MoD (and other related departments) are not involved.   Well, that is a whole new heap of FoI requests with that one!  You see, there’s me thinking that the MoD would have done this event. No smoke without fire…. But it turns out that the smoke was from the smoke machine, rather than the fire.  Whoever said that there's no smoke without fire, never heard of a smoke machine...

Prior Knowledge

Want to play chess with me?  I love chess and love playing it.  It’s a great game that I think that can teach you a lot about you and you think.  Don't know anything about the game?  That’s fine.  I can live with that.  I will teach you.  but you know the basics of the game right?  What you didn't know that you played with a board and pieces?  You didn't even know that you moved them around the board?  What?  Jeepers you really don't know…  Look, you need to have a little look at the game because I can't go into this right now.  Maybe when you have brought the right equipment, we will play.

Silly isn't it?  At the same, a good illustration of the FoI to the people on the inside doing your FoI claim.  Remember they only have 18 hours of time to get your claim.  that's just over 2 full working days.  If you can find out some more about the knowledge that you are looking for, then you can help these guys out before you put pen to paper (Or words on the screen.  Your choice).  

If you send in your request with NO KNOWLEDGE of what you speak of, it is going to show up like a rocket and could mean that the people on the inside have some major issues in how to answer you. The FoI request is not a tool to teach you knowledge that you need to know, or should have known before you start asking them questions. Remember they have plenty to do before they even look at your claim.

This is not the whole of the story, however.  A lot of the good FoI departments are actually VERy happy to help you with a lot of the information.  This is a topic which shows up a like a record in their responses (Consistency is something that I will turn to in another blog) and how they deal with you.  

I give two AMAZING example of how, sometimes, these guys really do want to educate you in topic which you have no knowledge of they are:

1. Asking the ministry of defence for files that they have that were made prior to the end of the second world war.  For those of you that do not know, the end of the second world war was August 15 1945 (That was the Japanese surrendered and thus WW2 ended).  This is over the 30 years rules so all files from that time period have now been released.  Or have they?  The short answer is no.  Some of them are still classified (for example, some of the documents relating to Dover castle will not be available for years).  You see, some of them are held up by a Lord Chancellor's Instrument (LCI).  What's that, I hear you cry?  It is:

“permission to retain information beyond the 20/30 year period. The reasoning behind the retention is outlined in a submission to the Advisory commission who decide if this is sufficient to retain the information and for how long. The retentions are requested either of Freedom of Information Act 2000 grounds or Data Protection Act grounds. At the end of the retention period a further submission must be made if the information is still deemed sensitive”

Which is what the Ministry of Defence told me.  See, had I but known that then I could have narrowed the field down a bit!  There we go then

Like a game of Where's Wally (Or Waldo if your American)

I’m pretty interested in the government cloud computing system.  It has been heralded as a way of saving local governments millions of pounds.  Now, if there is a way of making local councils spend more on the services that we enjoy, then all the better!  Now, the question is why are the local governments not taking it up?  This sounds like a job for FoI Man!   

Before we go any further, wouldn't it be fun to find out what local councils thought about the system?  Well so far, after asking all of the council in Wales, if they have invested in the G Cloud, only a few of them have.  It would be great to find out what some council investigated and found out about the system?  How about London Councils?  What about their study?  Here it is!  Amazing what the FoI can do for you isn't it?

Well the first question is what has the central government done to publicise this situation. Where would be the first place to look for this?  Well, it is a local council issue so may be the Department for Communities and Local Government?  Since they look at all of the different issues regarding local government, then surely they would have the starting place?  Actually, not correct.  They did recommend me looking at the cabinet office.

So let's ask the Cabinet Office what they do to publicise the G Cloud or how they worked out the savings for different council?  An interesting question and an even more interesting answer. The answer came back as resounding “not us matey”. Interesting, so how does administrate the G Cloud?  Would the cabinet office know who to contact on the matter?  The recommended me go to the Digital Marketplace.  

And lowe, I did set forth to the Digital Marketplace to see their wares (Reminds me of Richard… Sorry that comment is for about three or four people…).  And thus, i did quite rightly ask them for the information that I needed which was “Where do I send the information for FoI requests to?”.  They told me to contact the Cabinet Office. Therefore I sent this

It is so frustrating!  You think that the government would be able to know where  to go for all of its departments. You think you see the light at the end of the tunnel, or see where to ask the things that you need to and then it disappears.  You would think on something as simple as this would be easy to find.  It’s like a massive game of Where’s Wally (Or Waldo if you're American).

Sometimes wonder if I am paranoid...

Previously I have stated that investigating a weapons fair is not an easy thing.  I don't think that people really want to discuss it.  I mean there was that FoI Request I sent to South Wales police asking them for how many officers were working it has resulted in nothing (That was sent a long time over 20 working days).  So as I stated I contacted Cardiff Council if they had any contact with any organisations over Cardiff DPRTE; they asked for which departments in the organisation.  Strange.  I honestly think that this was to trap myself and make the FoI request to big (Which worked).

So after some more digging (See previous blog entries) I found that the events was run by BiP Solutions.  So, me being the fellow that I am, starting the same digging with BiP Solutions.  It makes sense, if the council will not answer something specific, see if we can go slightly sideways. Guess what?  Same response.  Almost the EXACT same wording too.  Even when I asked them for the emails sent by the council regarding the event got THE EXACTLY WORDED RESPONSE.

So why are they asking me to do this?  When I sent the same request (About BiP Solutions) to North Wales Police (Don't let me down boys!), Dyfed Powys Police, Gwent Police, Ministry of Defence, Crown Commercial Service, South Wales Police, National Assembly for Wales and Welsh Government, none of them asked me this level of information (at time of writing).  I mean you would think that (With respect) they would be able to discern which department would do that contact.

Then I noticed something even more interesting…  A phone number if you have any problems…  Hmmm…  Now I work in a call centre, I also deal with lots of difficult legal problems too, so maybe phoning Cardiff Council direct would help me? I could ask why they needed the exact level of detail on this request or at least explained what I needed.  

I have phoned different FoI departments before and usually a nice chat sorts everything out (A special shout out here goes to Dyfed Powys Police and North Wales Police).  So I got through to the centre and basically asked to be put through to the FoI department.  After a long wait (Say five minutes or more), I was politely told that I had to email and that I could not speak to that department.  Eh?  There had to be a trackback of everything?  As I explained to the bloke, I have spoken to other FoI departments and they have been more than willing to give me the idiot's guide of anything I want. So why not on this one? (PS if that bloke who answered the phone to me is reading, you were one of the nicest people I have ever spoken to!).

How could I narrow down this request sufficiently enough so that I could get the information?  Remember my first FoI request was an organisational structure? :-). Well that helps doesn't it? So the question is, why are they - sort of - blocking me and everything else isn't?  Maybe they are trying to narrow the field to help them, I don't know.  I sometimes wonder if I am getting paranoid…

PS as an additional The Department for Business, Innovation & Skills (BIS) got in touch with me about which organisations they were in touch with over DPRTE…  Turns out it was the Ministry of Defence, Business Innovation & Skills, and the Welsh Office… Hmmm...

Sometimes I really wonder why I do this

Any organisation is as good as the people who work for it.  No matter what organisation you work for, it is the people who make the system work. So when I started this blog I started sending loads of FoI requests to try and obtain as much information as possible.  As I started to do this, I started to realise that I was dealing with a wide variety of people who were compiling a lot of different information, and dealing with a lot of different departments.  Why not ask the department directly what they think?

Sounds interesting isn't it?  So, I asked all the council in wales “What was the most interesting thing that they have found”.  I thought that this was an amazing question because it would “tip their hand”, in showing what is the most interesting thing in that area. Not only that but it was a total different question than anyone of them would have seen before.  Champion idea!

Not quite.  Now this “failed” for a number of reasons.  The main one is that most FoI departments do not categorize subject to “interest” (as I got told by numerous councils, in a fialry shirty way). Thats fair enough; think about it.  How can you categorize an entire filing system about what interests you and which ones don't. It is so subjective that there is no way.  I find the length of how long you can keep a file for.  Is anyone else going to agree this one?

Another reason that this “failed” was probably the sheer number of FoI requests I sent.  If you think about it, as stated in another blog, the maximum amount of time that it takes to get a FoI request is 18 hours.  By sending the sheer volume that I did probably clogged the system up, so having some moron saying “What is really interesting to you” probably didn't help. Again if someone sends 20 FoI requests in a month, and each take up to  18 hours to complete, that means 360 hours in a month.  That's 15 days of work.  Would you be happy to answer a weird questions after that?

That being said, there were a few that DID get back in touch on this matter.  One of the guys from Monmouth stated that the most interesting thing that they found was how recycling had increased in his area.  That is interesting!  Link it into the recycling and landfill fines that welsh councils have and it shows that their councils scheme is working in his area!  Most of the people who did get back in touch also stated that the most interesting thing that they found out was things that I asked for, which is a great thing for me because is shows I am unique (Your choice if this is a good thing or not).

A very honourable mention goes to the Vale of Glamorgan, on this one.  They did say the basic same thing (Cant answer that one) BUT they went out found this! Now this shows me that they really are trying to help.  They know that this is stupid but they are willing to honour section 16 to the letter of the law.  Well done and well played Vale of Glamorgan.

Homoeopathic Products

The United Kingdom is awash with a news story talking about new “Superbugs” which can wipe out humanity, and are resilient to all form of Anti Biotics. Realistically we are going to need to look for new methods of fighting Viruses. So what are we going to do? Well, what about Homeopathic medicine? Well, personally I am not so sure. I am not going to go into this in depth (As stated this is not a blog for my personal opinion, this is for things which are quite interesting). So I decided to find out what the policy was for this.

A quick look on what do they know showed that there is something called the “Advisory Board on the Registration of Homoeopathic Products”. It basically looks after the whole of that industry. Now the question that pops up in my head is how do you test the scientific basis of a homeopathic medicine? Now there are PLENTY of sites that look at this issue in more depth, but I am interested more in the processes that the departments have. Guess what I did next? I did this. It is interesting that the steps are on the internet for anyone to pick up. Makes it clear what need to be done and makes you think about what you need to do. At least we have some insight into this industry.

So now that we know this we now need to know what is the process that a company has to go through to be able to able to trade Homoeopathic Products? That is something that I am interested in finding out. Again no one starts a business unless that are going to make money. Won't it be interesting to find out what you have to do to start a business.?

Now who buys this stuff? The NHS? Would they prescribe this to someone? Well let's ask the All Wales Medicines Strategy Group. Would they be able to give some guidance on how they distribute Homeopathic to people? That should be able to show us something on what they do? Surprisingly enough, no. They gave a LOT of evidence on how they distribute medicine, but not homeopathic medicine.

What about the regulation of this? Surely the NHS would have someone sending in some complaints. Probably one of the main NHS watchdogs, probably. So I asked the Aneurin Bevan Community Health Council (CHC) how many complaints that they have had about Homeopathic medicine (Look right down the bottom). None. Makes you think about this stuff that they have never had a complaint. Only more FoI requests will find if there are other issues. In this matter.

What about advertising these products? Could they be advertised fraudulently? It would link in with the statements I said above about the proving their statement. Let's asked the Advertising Standards Authority. WHat do they do, I hear you ask. Well they basically make sure that that what is advertised is true. Famously, they were the ones who stopped the old Guinness adverts saying that “Guinness is good for you”. So what would they do if they found someone making false claims about homeopathic medicine? They referred me to their website and their rulings. A search of their rulings found this one.

The only reason that I chose homeopathic medicine is purely because I found the body regulating it. I just wanted to see what the wider NHS would have done. It is so interesting to see that there is only one body looking at this and concerned in its ability. It goes to show, in some respects, that there is no joined up thinking here. When you ask one body for information they have everything, when you dig a bit deeper, you find there is nothing at all. I wonder how many other issues have not got any other joined up thinking.

PS here is what was said by the Board on the Registration of Homoeopathic Products on what guidance was given to the NHS on Homoeopathic Products. Here is what was said about Homoeopathic Product testing.

Welfare and Support

I work in high court enforcement.  If you have been naughty and have not paid your court fine, you pay it to me (You would not believe the amount of places that I have been told to disappear to in my job). And it's this job that has kinda brought me to write this blog.  You see, I am a libertarian.  

I believe totally in the power of the individual and the power of the  democracy.   I believe that governments should be afraid of the power of the masses and that we are in charge of our government, not them in charge of us. So it got me thinking, is our justice system fair to weak and vulnerable people?

Well the amount of people that I hear say “I am vulnerable” is tremendous.  So what do you think vulnerability is?  That is not a conversation that I can really develop, purely because everyone is slightly different from each other, and really vulnerable is a case of judgement sometimes. For example, someone whom is a lone parent, are they vulnerable? Lots of things to consider (Think about the amount of factors to consider before answering that).

So I am not going to look at vulnerability, I am going to look at  is the journey that the  case will take from the initial stage through it the end.  Now I should point out that  there are two different cases that I will be looking at.  One case is magistrates fines and the other is Parking charges.  

Now, as stated in previous blogs, no one likes a fine for ANYTHING.  I would rather spend the money on my kids birthday than pay the fine for being parked in a disabled bay, BUT there we go.  So, what's the process that the case goes through before it goes to a Bailiff (OR Enforcement Agents, as they are now called.  Believe me, there is a whole world of difference).  

Under the freedom of information act, I have asked all the council in Wales (And some in London), what is the process that the case will go through for it to get to an  EA.  The results were STAGGERING.

When you get the fine, you have 14 days to pay it at half the amount. So if the fine was 70, you got 14 days to pay 35 and that ends the matter.  If you appeal this, then your case is on hold.  After the 14 days it's then 70.  After 28 days a notice is sent to the DVLA for them to send the details of whom owned the car. After that ANOTHER 28 is given for that person to call in.  After that it goes up by another 50% (105)  and you have another 28 days./  It then goes to Northampton COunty court (With an additional £7 added on top) for it to be turned into a warrant.  (Balance is 112, for those counting).  Then it goes to an Approved Enforcement Agency - AFA) whom works on behalf of the council.  An additional £75 gets placed on top and you have another week to call in and make a PA.  IF it goes to an EA then an additional 235 gets placed on top taking the balance to 422.  

So how many chances do you have to pay before going to an EA?  You have over 4 months to pay back the balance.  And if you dispute then you have longer to allow you to dispute. Thats a lot of chances, and a long time!  What if you cannot read or you have mental health issues?  Well that is another matter for another Blog.

What the procedure for a magistrates fine? Well I will attach their response to this blog.  There are a lot of steps.

Now I am no hardliner and not someone who doesn't have a heart, but I do have to ask the question:

How many chances do you have to give someone?

Remember a fine is for something that you have done wrong.  If you haven't done something wrong, or didn't have the opportunity to defence yourself, then there are safeguards in the system.

Civil Contingencies

Do you like disaster movies?  I do.  Love them. Love the Walking Dead, Terminator, 28 Days later, love them all. Have you ever thought about what happened when the brown sticky stuff hits the fan?  Well here is the thing, if you read enough history on the cold war, you will notice that there was such a thing as “Civil Defence” and that was to  look after people in the case of a nuclear explosion.  Its pretty cool looking at it (Find out more from  here) , but  one of the cool things that came from it was Civil Contingencies.  

Civil Contingencies planning looks after you and your family when there is an emergency.  It establishes who is responsible in the case of an emergency and what government departments have to to do before hand.  It is a way of making sure that the people who run our country have a plan for most problems.  

So why am I interested in this?  Again I am a huge geek, and the thought of the nuclear apocalypse is one that is quite interesting (look out for a blog on the cold war that I am going to write). The thought that our government have a plan in their hands is again, something that is really interesting.  So being me, I sent a request to the ALL councils in wales and asked them how much they spend on civil contingencies.

The reasons I asked them is again linked back to the question of “Follow the money”.  How much money someone is willing to spend on something, DIRECTLY shows how much someone takes an interest in something.  BY finding out how much councils put into planning shows how much they wants to look after us.  

So I asked. And here are the results:

Name	Total Amount	people working there in total
Bleaunau	£964,531.00
Bridgend	333445
Caerphilly	863031 – since 2010	5
Cardiff	1853621	4
Camarthenshire	1380490	3
Ceredigion
Conway
Denbighshire	96081
Flintshire	£118,937.00
Gwynedd
Anglesey	98710
Merthyr Tydfil	96380	2
Monmouth	664073 since 2010	3
Neath Port Talbot
Newport	34128	2
Pembroke
Powys	Nil in Civil Contingencies (Due to budget) but 164,540 in planning	3
RCT
Swansea

Torfaen	£700,000.00
Vale Of Glamorgan	126773	2
Wrexham

This is not the end of the story, however!  As I have found out during the making of this blog, I didn't look in the right place! Due to the amazing work that the boys in North Wales Police (having talked to them, I can honestly say that they take a LOT of pride in their work and the sheer amount of information, and quality, is AMAZING.  If you need to talk about anything related to the police ask them and them alone. This links in with consistency of FoI departments - Which I will address in another blog) I found that this was the WRONG place to ask my questions.

The council is NOT the first point of contact for civil emergencies. It is something called the “Local Resilience Forum” (LRF for short).  They are the ones that coordinate the plans with each other.  The law now works so that all the organisations have to work together.  They are the ones who makes the plans.  Interesting isn't it?  

So now I have to work in the ONLY way I know how.  More FoI Request to find out about these LRF’s!  I bet the prepper community is going to go nuts over this one!  (If you don't know what a prepper is, I suggest you have a little look).