The Labour
governments of 1997-2010 can be held responsible for much of the malaise we are
currently experiencing but if there were one single piece of legislation for
which we should be truly grateful it is the Freedom of Informarion Act 2000. Tony Blair famously has made public his
regrets at the passing of this act. His
regrets are proof if we ever needed it that it has been of huge benefit for
those concerned at the increasing control and secrecy being exercised by government and
countless devolved organisations. From international
relations to a council`s snooping F.O.I. opens up government as never
before. Its success makes it a certainty
that any similar legislation will never again be contemplated.
As colleagues who
sit on appeals at crown court will be well aware one of the most common categories
of offenders who appear is those who are
appealing against findings of guilt or level of sentence for motoring offences.
F.O.I. figures show that in 2012 there were 81,674 convictions of having no
vehicle third party risk insurance where this was the primary offence. Also resulting from F.O.I. disclosures the
offence for which most appeals against verdict was made at crown court in 2012
was also having no third party insurance……694 from a grand total of 3,975 the
next highest being failing to give driver`s identity; 624. In the former category 289 were allowed (41.6%)
Appeals against sentence for no third
party insurance numbered 537. Of these 169 (31.5%) were allowed. For the latter offence 251 (40.2%) were
allowed thus overturning the original guilty verdicts. On sentence 62 were allowed out of 152 (41.3%). Considering the almost formulaic basis
on which drink driving is prosecuted the figures are somewhat surprising at
least to this blogger. 34 from196 (17.3%) appeals against verdict were allowed and 94
from 229 (41%) sentences were
successfully appealed. At the other end
of seriousness the person who appealed against a finding of having faulty steering
gear lost his/her appeal as did the person found guilty of tampering with a
motor vehicle.
What these
figures indicate about the efficiency of the magistrates` courts and their
appeals system I cannot now comment upon.
What they say about the Freedom of Information Act is that it is beyond price.
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