Thinking about this further, if SVFR clearances were being issued, that would indicate that the weather conditions were below those that would permit ATC to issue a VFR clearance, normally visibility less than 5km.
Not necessarily so.
I wasn't asking ATC to police anything. My suggestion was for a relevant piece of background information for ATC to be aware of, hopefully in order to help their decision making in cases like this. If it's not welcome, so be it, forget my suggestion.
The major airfield I operate from asks for licence type on booking out, it wouldn't cost anything to translate that across to IMC qualified or not. If a pilot calls up for a clearance only to be given something that he cannot comply with, it has wasted ATC time.