Information Commissioner told to reconsider sex offender decision
20 May 10
Opinion on non-disclosure of sex offender figures unclear, court rules
The Court of Session has ordered Kevin Dunion, Scotland's Information Commissioner, to reconsider a decision not to order release of information on the number of sex offenders living in different parts of Glasgow.
The information had been requested under the Freedom of Information Act by three housing associations in the Glasgow area, who believed that the number of registered offenders in some areas was disproportionate, and that affluent areas had relatively few.
Mr Dunion upheld the chief constable's refusal to release the information, due to concerns that with areas of relatively small populations it might be possible to identify individuals, leading to risk of victimisation by members of the public.
Lord President Hamilton, giving the opinion of the court, said that these were legitimate concerns, but the commissioner had not explained how identification would take place on the basis of the statistics, or what other publicly available information could be used with the figures to enable identification to take place.
The appellants were entitled to be told, at least in general terms, what these factors or data were, and without that, Mr Dunion's decision was "unintelligible".
Click here to view the court's decision.