The added value of FOI
You are a cabinet minister running a large department and you want to know more about what's going on within it - what can you do?
You could hope that someone might put in a freedom of information request - at least you could if you are the Justice Secretary Jack Straw.
He has just told a conference that FOI helps make large institutions more accountable not only to ordinary citizens but also to those actually responsible for running them.
He remarked that he signed off on an FOI request last night. As a result he discovered data about numbers arrested for breaches of probation orders.
He added that it will be embarrassing for the government when it comes out - but he felt it was important data and he's now asked his officials why this material is not collected routinely.
UPDATE, 15 May: is the information to which Jack Straw was referring, published on the Ministry of Justice website.
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