Commissioner restyles website to boost info rights

Dunion hopes new site will help users and information holders

News, 6 July 2007

The Scottish Information Commissioner Kevin Dunion has relaunched his office's website to make it easier for members of the public to understand and exercise their freedom of information rights.

The new site (http://www.itspublicknowledge.info) should also help public authorities comply with their legal obligations and has been designed to be more user-friendly than its predecessor. Since the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act came into force in 2005, the Commissioner's office has received more than 500 applications and nearly 1,500 enquiries a year.

For people making information requests, there is a guide to making a request and a new response calculator which can show, at the touch of a button, the date when a response is due from a public authority.

For public authority users there is a more flexible tool for searching the Commissioner's past decisions, guidance on applying exemptions, and an expanded resources area.

Kevin Dunion said: "My role is not just about enforcing the law but ensuring members of the public feel confident about their rights and encouraging public authorities to go beyond compliance to become more open in all their dealings."

The Commissioner's website currently receives an average of 660 hits per day - nearly 116,000 so far in 2007.