It is OK to use FoI for silly things sometimes
FoI parliament · 3 comments · 650 words · read ~336 times.
Because I'm dead fancy0 and know lots of mega-important people1, I occasionally get to go to swanky places. A few weeks ago, I was invited to the House of Lords for a high-powered business meeting about important stuff2. The best meetings take place in opulent surroundings3, so we adjourned to The Woolsack - a bar nestled deep within the Lords.
As a prolific4 user of Untappd - the social network for beer drinkers - I'm always on the lookout for a beer I've never met before5. So I was delighted to see this on offer: 
What ho! A exclusive beer! Rather! I generously let mine host pay for it and enjoyed quaffing it.
But eagle-eyed6 readers may have noticed something odd about the the beer's lens. There's no indication of who the brewer is and what the alcoholic strength is7.
I didn't feel like quizzing the innocent barkeep8 so I did the next best thing. I immediately9 sent a Freedom of Information request to the House of Lords. About beer.
Fair play to those poor souls in the records office, they replied pretty sharpish to my somewhat frivolous request.
Who is the brewer of this beer?
The House Administration holds this information. The brewer is Greene King.
What is the beer’s ABV?
The House Administration holds this information. The ABV of the beer is 4%.
Hurrah! Success!
Now, you may think this is a trivial thing to use FoI for. And, to a certain degree, you're right. But the point about FoI is that you never know what you're going to uncover.
For example, is it illegal to sell beer in Parliament without displaying the ABV?10
Given the Baron Bilimoria sits in the House of Lords and invented Cobra Beer - was there some sort of kickback scheme here?11
Would the team refuse the FoI because their record keeping is disastrous and finding simple information would be too onerous?12
As someone who has been on the receiving end of one-or-two13 FoI requests of varying degrees of vindictiveness, I feel a little guilty about sending something which seems so spurious.
But, I truly believe, that our rights are like a muscle. We have to regularly exercise them. Sometimes we'll uncover something interesting, other times something important, and occasionally something unexpected. And, for this request, something utterly mundane.
So here's a cheers to everyone at the HoL for answering my question so promptly 🍻
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All people are important. But some, of course, are more important than others. ↩︎
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OK, it was about robot ontologies and social media. Look, we can't all be fighting for truth and justice. ↩︎
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As one patron described it, "It looks like a mid-level motorway service station." A description I found apt. ↩︎
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With real kung-fu grip! ↩︎
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At the time, Untappd had some unverified (and incorrect) information about the beer. ↩︎
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Are any of us truly innocent men? ↩︎
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OK, not immediately. Importantly, I did some research first. All I could find was this "Update on Catering and Retail Services (CRS) operation of The Woolsack" report which mentions the lager but gives no further details about it. ↩︎
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I have no idea. ↩︎
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Probably not. ↩︎
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They were exemplary. ↩︎
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Dozen. ↩︎
Yes, exercise that muscle. I agree.
I've issued my first handful of FoI requests recently, and the results have been useful. Fairly immediately for one of the institutions that I made the request to.
JacketPotato says:
Thanks to someone's FoI request, I was able to get the soundfiles used for the horns on Manchester's trams, so my brother could have his text tone be the tram horn, which was pretty cool 🙂
It is well worth people occasionally testing the FOI processes with fun stuff like beer ABVs to ensure they’ll work when someone needs to ask something more complicated or of greater importance.
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