News In Focus
8 March 2010
Public authorities urged to "think FOI"
Scotland’s public authorities must take steps to ensure they can more readily comply with freedom of information requests, according to Scottish Information Commissioner Kevin Dunion.
In his 2009 annual report, released today, Mr Dunion said the number of FOI appeals he received increased by 15% over the last year, and that two thirds of the decisions he issued found that a public authority had breached FOI law in some way.
Mr Dunion said that the impact of the recession on public spending could well mean that even more information requests would be made by people concerned about public authority decisions that affect services, funding or jobs.
“It is therefore essential that public authorities take steps to make sure they can more readily comply with FOI, giving people the information they want, while minimising the impact on public authority resources,” he said. Key to this was assuming that information would be released.
“When staff create information, they should be aware that their reports, emails and notes may one day be released under FOI. All too often, a public authority’s reluctance to disclose is less about the actual content of the information, and more about the manner in which staff have expressed themselves. By encouraging staff at all levels to ‘think FOI’, public authorities can encourage a more professional approach to internal, as well as external, communications – making it far easier to contemplate release.”
Alongside the 15% increase in applications, the Commissioner’s annual report reveals that:
- 73% of the applications received by the Commissioner in 2009 came from members of the public;
- the Commissioner found that a public authority had breached the law in some way in two thirds of the appeals that were made to him;
- the average age of cases being dealt with by the Commissioner continued to decline during 2009, meaning that individual applications are being resolved more quickly. The average age of cases closed during 2009 was 5.3 months, down from 6.7 months in 2008 and 10 months in 2007;
- enquiries to the Commissioner’s office from people seeking advice on using FOI also increased significantly, with a 16% increase on 2008 volumes.
Click here to read the full report