FOI commissioner publishes annual report
11 Mar 08
Central and local government subject of most appeals for information
The Scottish Government and local authorities have been the subject of more than two thirds of all applications under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act since it came into force in 2005.
The Scottish Information Commissioner's fourth annual report, published yesterday, breaks down the 1,574 applications to the Commissioner by individual authority from 2005 until 2007. Central government accounts for the greatest number (267), followed by Glasgow City Council (68), Edinburgh City Council (60) and Strathclyde Police (50).
The high volume of appeals concerning central and local government is consistent with other countries that have freedom of information (FOI) legislation, according to commissioner Kevin Dunion.
However the new breakdown illustrates that, of the 1,574 appeals made since January 2005, local health boards (101 in total) and universities/colleges (46 in total) were responsible for a surprisingly low number.
Health and education query
Mr Dunion said: “At the heart of freedom of information legislation is a commitment to providing people with the information necessary for them to understand the activities of public authorities, to help them participate in future decisions and to hold those same authorities to account for their decisions.
"It may well be that sectors such as health and education are responding well to many information requests, or they may be receiving far fewer requests than they expected. Whatever the reason, we need to understand better why appeals from these sectors are so low."
In 2007 alone, the commissioner received 482 new applications and issued 249 decisions – of which 105 were in favour of the authority, 62 in favour of the applicant and 82 were partially upheld. A further 215 applications were closed without investigation and 135 were closed during investigation, i.e. as a result of being withdrawn or settled.
The report shows that in 2007, 77% of appeals came from ordinary members of the public, 75 from elected members, 6% from the media and 45 from voluntary/campaigning organisations.
Of the applications to the commissioner during 2007, the breakdown by subject area was as follows:
- administration and finance (17%)
- safety and crime (10%)
- commercial activities and contracts (9%)
- employment (9%)
- planning and property (6%)
- education and learning (5%)
- care services (4%)
- environment (3%)
- health (3%).
Of applications relating to non-ministerial offices in the Scottish administration, the highest number of applications involved the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (28).
Concealment concern
Overall, the commissioner thinks FOI laws have been a great success in Scotland, but he is concerned that public authorities' increasing use of private firms and charitable trusts to deliver public services is an area of concern.
“The transfer of these functions may, at a stroke, remove freedom of information rights where these bodies are not covered by the legislation, leaving the public with no right in law to that information," Mr Dunion explained. He is now working with the Scottish Government to explore the arguments around extending the FOI legislation.
A full breakdown of the report is available on the Scottish Information Commissioner’s website www.itspublicknowledge.info .