🎄 It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like… an Unanswered FOI 🎄
Ah, Christmas.
The season of goodwill, mince pies, and public bodies announcing that nothing further can be dealt with until the New Year — despite having had all year.
2025 has been a festive spectacular.
A year where:
- Meetings popped up like advent calendars
- Minutes vanished like the last Quality Street
- Consultations were held somewhere between Halloween and Narnia
- Transparency was placed in storage “pending review”
- And accountability went out for mulled wine and never came back
We’ve all enjoyed the Christmas classics:
🎅 “We do not hold that information”
🎄 “No notes were taken”
🎁 “Commercial sensitivity” (now available on page 43 of another document)
❄️ “We’ll respond shortly” — first aired in spring, now a festive tradition
This year’s standout performance must go to governance — boldly reimagined as:
“A loose collection of emails, good intentions, and people who’ve moved on.”
Spare a festive thought for the Freedom of Information Act, currently propping up the wonky leg of the transparency table while being told it’s very demanding and should try asking again in 20 working days.
To residents, volunteers and community groups who dared ask awkward questions this year:
- Who signed this off?
- Where’s the money gone?
- Why does this organisation exist twice?
Congratulations. You are now on Santa’s Naughty List (Appendix B).
As we head into 2026, councils everywhere are preparing their New Year’s resolutions:
✔ “Lessons will be learned”
✔ “Processes will be reviewed”
✔ “Engagement will be improved”
✔ “Minutes will be taken next time (probably)”
I, meanwhile, will be leaving out:
🥛 a glass of milk
🍪 a mince pie
📄 and a neatly drafted FOI request
Just in case.
Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas, a peaceful break, and a New Year filled with:
- fewer working groups
- more actual answers
- complete accounts on first publication
- and governance that doesn’t require festive divination
Goodwill to all — and transparency, at least between Christmas and New Year.
🎄🧾🎅
Darryl
#FOIOnIce #MerryFOIChristmas #MissingMinutes #FestiveTransparency #FollowThePaperTrail #GovernanceGrinch #Sandwell #Accountability
No comments:
Post a Comment