Computer says...

Regular readers will know how helpful regular Freedom of Information requests are to blogs like these. Now the redoubtable BBC FOI team have had to release their internal handbook on data they believe they can keep to themselves, because it is held for the purposes of "journalism, art or literature", and case law or the ICO backs them up.

Altogether they've got 66 categories of information that will stay just with the BBC, from production costs, resource allocation, editorial guidelines, stories held in databases, audience figures and complaints, to how competition winners are chosen.  The good news for those lodging inquiries - questions about "insurance", "tv licensing" and "Parties: wrap, Xmas, programme and service launches" are all "IN SCOPE".

• The BBC has made a commitment to publish "a selection of responses to previous Freedom of Information requests handled under the Act. The selection of what we publish is made by considering if we believe that there may be a wider public interest, when information is frequently requested, or when information is not already available elsewhere."  This pipeline seems to have dried up, with no new answers to FOI requests published by the BBC since 14 December 2011.