a mass of new Freedom of Information disclosures

Tea-V The BBC have posted a mass of new Freedom of Information disclosures. Plenty have a whiff of the right wing press about them ("Is it true Asylum Seekers receive free TV licenses?" "No!") others reveal "useful" information about the cars supplied to the corporation's hierarchy (Mark Thompson has a VW Phaeton 3.0TDi V6 4Motion Auto 4 door whatever one of those is).

But there's still plenty of fascinating facts to chew over. Like the news that a Dental Clinic used to lease space at Broadcasting House (but left after a refurbishment) and still does at White City but will be moving out shortly and these amazing two paragraphs which demonstrate the specificity with which even the simplest of functions are assessed within an organisation:

"Thank you also for your clarification of 11/04/2011. BBC Policy allows for the provision of tea in meetings where the meeting needs to be for two hours or longer or when entertaining a person or organisation from outside the BBC. Because of the way orders are recorded it is not always possible to say exactly how much of a hospitality request relates to tea, but using available information I estimate that around £179,500 was spent on tea for meetings in the year 2009/10.

In some of our buildings we also have kitchenettes where tea bags are available for staff to make their own cups of tea. The BBC utilises over 300 properties throughout the United Kingdom. Unfortunately we do not hold central records of expenditure for all locations, but using available information I estimate that in 2009/10 the BBC spent £49,800 on tea for kitchenettes.

Douglas Adams would be proud.