Freedom of information (FOI) releases from Herefordshire Council

This is a disclosure log of Herefordshire Council's responses to freedom of information (FOI) or environmental information regulations (EIR) requests that might be of wider public interest.

If you can't find the information you're looking for, you can make a new FOI request.

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3,001 disclosures

  1. Financial cost of placements in non-Ofsted-registered / approved accommodation

    Please provide the following information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000

    1. How many children has the local authority placed in accommodation that is not Ofsted-registered / approved since 2023? By this, we mean strictly accommodation that operates as a children's home (for example, defined as Class C2 residential institutions in planning terms), not foster care or any placement with relatives who may have guardianship orders.

    2. Please indicate how many of these placements were in-area or out-of-area.

    3. What was the length of the longest single placement in such accommodation?

    4. What has been the total cost of all such placements over the period?

    5. How many children has the local authority placed in Ofsted-registered / approved accommodation in the same period?

    6. How many Ofsted-registered / approved children's home places are available in-area in total?

    7. How many children's homes are operated by the local authority?

    8. Ofsted is clear that any accommodation that operates as a children's home without registration is illegal, and the people running it are committing a criminal offence.

    Please provide information as to what risk assessment is undertaken when the authority decides to place a young person in such accommodation, and why a decision to do so would be made by the authority. Please note we are requesting a general position statement, not a response in relation to each individual placement.

    Published: 4 June 2026

  2. School Transport - Costs, Budgets, Frameworks SEND, PRU and Mainstream

    Below are the details of my FOI request:

    This request is for recorded information only.

    If data is not held in the exact format requested, please provide the closest aggregated format available.

    For question 1-3 please provide data for each of the last three completed financial years (2023/24–2025/26), broken down into: SEND, PRU & Mainstream.

    (If 2025/26 is not available please provide 2022/23 - 2024/25)

    Where the requested SEND / PRU / Mainstream breakdown is not held, please provide the total figure in the format held and briefly state the basis used.

    Q1 - The total gross spend on home-to-school transport.

    Q2 – The total number of pupils transported.

    Q3 - The total number of transport routes operated. (If routes are not categorised, please provide a total route count with clarification.)

    Q4 - Procurement Route

    Please state the primary procurement route(s) used (e.g. DPS, framework, open tender) and, where held, the approximate proportion of spend by route.

    Q5 - Contract Register / Award Structure

    Please provide one of the following:

    · A link to your public contract register covering home-to-school transport, or

    · Confirmation that contracts are awarded at individual route level (e.g. via DPS) and are not held as a single consolidated contract.

    Q6 - Digital Systems

    Please list the main systems used for home-to-school transport, for example:

    · Procurement / tendering (e.g. In-tend)

    · Route planning (e.g. QRoutes, Trapeze)

    · Operations / case management / invoicing (e.g. MRI)

    · Compliance or driver checks (e.g. in-house compliance modules, DBS checking systems, licensing or badge management systems)

    For each system or process, please provide:

    · System name

    · Whether it is in-house or third-party

    · Aggregated costs

    Q7 - Staffing

    Please provide the total number of council staff involved in the end-to-end delivery of the home-to-school transport service, together with the aggregated annual salary cost for those staff.

    This should include, where applicable, staff involved in:

    · commissioning

    · procurement

    · route planning

    · service management

    · administration

    · client transport / licensing

    · compliance

    · operational delivery

    And separately:

    · in-house drivers

    · in-house passenger assistants / escorts

    Q8 - Winning Bid Prices (Aggregated)

    For the last three completed financial years, please provide one of the following, whichever is most readily available:

    · Average winning day rate for home-to-school transport routes

    · Minimum and maximum winning day rate, or

    · Winning day-rate bandings (e.g. £50–£75, £75–£100, £100–£125, etc.)

    Q9 - Award Method

    Please confirm:

    · Whether routes are typically awarded to the lowest priced compliant bid, or

    · Whether other factors are routinely applied (e.g. quality weighting).

    Q10 - Route Level Data

    Please provide the following fields in an Excel, CSV or any other structured format.

    · Route reference or number

    · Contract start date

    · Contract end date

    · Winning bid price (day rate or equivalent)

    · Route mileage

    · Vehicle type (high-level category if held i.e 4-8 Seater, WAV, Minibus, Bus etc.)

    · Whether a passenger assistant is required (Y/N)

    · Number of passengers (if held)

    We are not requesting any commercially sensitive details.

    Q11. Delivery Model

    At a high level, please confirm whether routes are typically delivered by:

    · Operators employing drivers

    · Self-employed drivers contracting directly

    · A mix of both

    Published: 4 June 2026

  3. Reports and Seizures of Counterfeit/Fake Toys in 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025

    I am writing to request information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 regarding counterfeit, fake, unsafe, or non-compliant toys reported to or seized by your Trading Standards service in the last five calendar years.

    Please provide the following information for each of the last five calendar years: 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025.

    Please provide the information in spreadsheet format, such as CSV or Excel, if possible.

    1. Reports received

    The number of reports, complaints, referrals, or intelligence logs received by Trading Standards relating to fake, counterfeit, unsafe, or non-compliant toys.

    2. Items seized

    The number of toys or toy products seized by Trading Standards in relation to suspected counterfeit, fake, unsafe, or non-compliant goods.

    3. Breakdown by toy type

    Where recorded, please provide a breakdown of the reported and/or seized toys by type or category.

    4. Reason for report or seizure

    Where recorded, please provide a brief breakdown or commentary on the main reasons for reports, investigations, or seizures.

    Published: 3 June 2026

  4. Minutes of any Council Deliberations Imposing a Council Tax Premium on Second Home Owners

    What I am requesting are the minutes of any council deliberations concerning the wider issues, rather than the purely financial benefits, of imposing a council tax premium on second home owners.

    Some of these wider issues, as outlined in the requirements published by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government on November 1st 2024 are:

    •         numbers and proportion of long-term empty dwellings and/or second homes in the local area

    •         circumstances which may affect whether the dwelling can be used as a main residence

    •         potential impact on local economies and the tourism industry

    •         potential impact on the local community

    •         potential impact on local services

    •         other measures that are available to councils to help bring empty dwellings back into use

    •         on average, how long dwellings in their area are available for sale or rent before completion/occupation

    •         the average price/rent in the local area

    Published: 3 June 2026

  5. Freedom of Information request - Hereford Bypass Phase 1 Value Engineering

    In this disclosure - EIR2026 00821 reference is made to the following: 1. A 'Value Engineering Opportunities Register', 2. A Value Engineering Decision workshop held on 1 April 2026, and 3. A meeting to be scheduled in April between Herefordshire Council Planning and GRAHAM. I request disclosure of the most up to date Register and any written records pertaining to the decision workshop and to the meeting between Planning and GRAHAM.

    Published: 2 June 2026

  6. Current Premises Licence Register

    Under section 1 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, I would like to request a copy of Herefordshire Council's premises licence register as currently held under the Licensing Act 2003.

    I would be grateful if the data could be provided in a machine-readable format (CSV, XLSX, or JSON in preference to PDF). For each licensed premises currently in force, the fields I am requesting are:

      1. Premises name and any trading name
      2. Full address including postcode
      3. Licence number / reference
      4. Date the current licence was issued / start date
      5. Licensable activities permitted
      6. Permitted hours (where summarised in your register)
      7. Current designated premises supervisor (DPS), where applicable
      8. Current licence holder

    I am happy to receive the data via email attachment, or via a download link if that is more practical. Please confirm receipt of this request.

    If any part of this request is unclear, or if a partial response would require fee approval, I would welcome the opportunity to refine the scope rather than receive a refusal.

    Published: 2 June 2026

  7. Certificates of Sponsorship

    I wish to make an FOI request and would be grateful if you could tell me the following:

    The numbers of certificates of sponsorship awarded by your organisation for the years 2021 - 2025 (inclusive) - if possible, please can I have this broken down by in-country and entry visa sponsorship.

    If possible, the number of these CoS which resulted in visa issuance. Although I understand this may not

    Published: 2 June 2026

  8. Smoke drift complaints

    I would like to request the following information under the Freedom of Information Act:

    1. The total number of complaints relating to cigarette smoke, cigarette smoke smell, or smoking odour received between: a. 1January 2025 and 31 December 2025 b. 1 January 2026 and 30 April 2026

    2. Where recorded, a breakdown of the location type from which the complaint originated for the above periods, including categories such as: a. Residential b. Commercial c. Public spaces

    3. The number of complaints during the above periods that resulted in: a. Formal action b. Enforcement action c. Warning notices d. Mediation e. Other recorded intervention outcomes - Please separate out into the timeframes above Please provide data with clear headers, such as 1a, 1b, etc.

    Published: 2 June 2026

  9. Togetherness online parenting resources

    I am writing to you under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act. I am specifically interested in the provision of the “Togetherness” online parenting courses (previously known as Solihull Approach). In keeping with the Act, I am happy to provide further clarification if required and politely request your answering of the following questions within 20 working days.

    1. Does your Local Authority currently provide the “Togetherness” online parenting courses (previously known as Solihull Approach online)?

    2. If you do provide Togetherness online parenting courses:

    a. Within your Local Authority, which team commissioned Togetherness? For example was it directly commissioned by your local authority, or was it provided by an external body such as the NHS or a charity?

    b. When did your contract for the Togetherness online parenting courses start and when will it end?

    c. In the last full year for which records are available (or the period March 2025-March 2026 if this information is more readily available), how many parents within your Local Authority have accessed

    Togetherness online parenting courses, and how many parents have completed a course? .

    Published: 2 June 2026

  10. Environmental health Staffing/enforcement

    I hope you are well. I am writing to request information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 relating to environmental health in your local authority. The information requested is as follows:

    1. Staffing:

    1.1: Number of full-time equivalent (FTE) staff (including, if possible, agency or contractor staff working in equivalent roles) in your environmental health dept, unit or team in 2019/20 and 2025/26.

    1.2. Of the total FTE in your environmental health team, please indicate, for both 2019/20 and 2025/26, the approximate FTE allocated to the following functions: • Food hygiene/food standards inspections and enforcement • Pest control • Infectious disease control (including outbreak investigation, liaison with health protection bodies, etc.) Note: I appreciate that some staff work across multiple areas. Where possible please apportion their FTE by time spent (e.g. a 1.0 FTE officer spending half their time on food safety and half on housing should be counted as 0.5 in each category). If exact data is not held, please provide the best available estimate used for internal planning, monitoring or statutory reporting - rather than create a new data set.

    2. Businesses:

    2.1: Number of food businesses (including restaurants and takeaways) registered in the local authority in 2019/20 and 2025/26.

    2.2: Number of food businesses (including restaurants and takeaways) inspected in 2019/20 and 2025/26.

    2.3: Number of registered food businesses that are eligible for inspection, but which have never been inspected.

    2.4: Number of food businesses (including restaurants and takeaways) that failed inspections in 2019/20 and 2025/26.

    2.5: Number of enforcement visits to food businesses in the local authority in 2019/20 and 2025/26.

    2.6: Number of incidents involving pests (vermin, insects etc) at food businesses in 2019/20 and 2025/26.

    2.7: Number of closures of food businesses in 2019/20 and 2025/26 due to enforcement action through a Hygiene Emergency Prohibition Notice.

    2.8: Number of prosecutions of food businesses in 2019/20 and 2025/26.

    Published: 1 June 2026