Freedom of information working well, says minister
16 Mar 07
Executive plans extension of bodies covered and wants to avoid restrictive fees
Scotland's Freedom of Information Act is working well and is likely to be extended to cover more bodies, Minister for Parliamentary Business Margaret Curran announced yesterday.
Giving details of the outcome of the Executive's review of the legislation, Ms Curran said that FOI had delivered significant advances in the openness and transparency of Scottish public authorities. She added:
"FOI provides ministers with a power to bring other organisations which are not Scottish public authorities within the coverage of the Act. It has always been our intention to use this power when appropriate and proportionate."
The review gathered initial views on what additional bodies could be covered by the FOI legislation. These could include charities that receive public funds, ombudsmen, Network Rail and non-publicly-funded regulatory bodies such as the Law Society of Scotland and Faculty of Advocates.
The Executive will finalise the conditions for considering a body for coverage, and consult with those bodies which ministers decide are suitable, as required by the Act, before the end of the year.
Further look at costs
On the costs of requesting information, where it was thought the Executive might alter the regime to discourage multiple applications, Ms Curran said: "The Review did not provide conclusive evidence to underpin any decisions on changes to the fees system.
"However, it is important that FOI strikes a balance between encouraging use of the Act by the public while not imposing an unreasonable burden on authorities.
"We will therefore be looking in more detail at how the Fee Regulations are working in practice across Scotland."
She said there was clearly a high degree of public awareness of the legislation and she was greatly encouraged that people were making use of their rights to request information.
The Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002, which came into force on 1 January 2005, currently covers almost 10,000 authorities from national bodies such as the Scottish Parliament, down to individual GPs.
Under the current fee structure, the first £100 worth of work on obtaining the information is free to the applicant. If the cost of providing the information would be more than £100 but less than £600 authorities can charge 10 per cent of the cost of providing the information. Above the £600 limit the authority can charge the full amount or refuse to provide the information requested. Charges are a maximum of £15 per person per hour for staff time.