Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 - Review
Announcement on the Review of the operation of Freedom of Information in Scotland by the Minister for Parliamentary Business
The introduction of Scotland's Freedom of Information Act in January 2005 has certainly driven significant advances in the openness of Scottish public authorities. Thousands of requests for information have been made, the majority by members of the public for information about the issues affecting their everyday lives and communities. There is clearly a high degree of public awareness of Freedom of Information and its benefits in Scotland, and I am encouraged that people are making use of their new rights to request information. Public authorities in Scotland have embraced Freedom of Information with great enthusiasm and deserve praise for adapting to the Act and achieving high levels of compliance with its requirements in a short period of time.
Acting on previous commitments and in light of issues put to Ministers, I initiated a Review of the operation of Freedom of Information in Scotland. I made clear at that time that it was too early to judge any requirements for substantive changes to the legislation, and that we would simply be assessing any requirement for fine-tuning which would enable the continued successful operation of Freedom of Information in Scotland.
In reaching decisions at this point, I have considered the range of views and evidence currently available and also the experience of other regimes. I have been mindful that Freedom of Information in Scotland is still relatively new; that it is important the successes to date are further improved upon; and that we have an obligation to take a considered and responsible approach to ensuring it is operating effectively in Scotland for both people making requests and authorities required to comply with its provisions. I am pleased to announce that we have now finished this exercise. The main conclusions of the Review of the operation of Freedom of Information in Scotland are as follows:
Fees
We will not be revising the Fee Regulations at this stage. The Review did not provide conclusive evidence to underpin any decisions on changes to the Fee Regulations at this point. However, I want to ensure that Freedom of Information is properly striking a balance between encouraging use of the Act by the public in making requests for information, but not imposing an unreasonable burden on authorities in their compliance with FOI. I will therefore be initiating comprehensive work on determining how the Fee Regulations are working in practice across Scotland and if they are striking the right balance for public authorities and people making requests.
Extending the coverage of Freedom of Information to organisations which are not Scottish public authorities
The Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 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 the power to extend coverage when appropriate and proportionate, and the Review has gathered initial views on what bodies could be considered for coverage. It also highlighted the conditions which might be applied in considering whether suggested bodies would be suitable. I will therefore be asking officials to examine in detail the many strong but competing arguments in relation to extending the coverage of the Act, and to finalise the conditions for coverage and test these against the suggested bodies throughout Summer 2007. We will consult directly with those bodies which Ministers decide to be suitable for inclusion under the Act by the end of 2007.
Removing unnecessary prohibitions to the disclosure of information
The Scottish Ministers are committed to reducing those laws that prohibit disclosure of information. I am therefore pleased to say that we will remove unnecessary existing prohibitions on disclosure of information which are currently contained in other older legislation.
Updating the list of Scottish public authorities
Schedule 1 to the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act lists all the Scottish public authorities for the purposes of the Act. It is clearly important that this list is kept up-to-date where Scottish public authorities have been created or have ceased to exist, and we will therefore be carrying out an exercise to ensure that this is the case.
Additionally, it may be that some of the challenges experienced to date could be addressed through, for example, more guidance and experience. We hope that, where necessary, this can be developed and supported by the Scottish Freedom of Information Forum who will share good practice and discuss compliance issues, which will be vital in building on the successful implementation phase of the Act supported through the excellent work done to date by the Scottish Freedom of Information Implementation Group. The Forum, similar to the Implementation Group, will have membership from and engage with both public authorities and representatives of the Act's User communities.
I am extremely grateful for all of the contributions made during the Review, including:
- Those individuals and organisations which responded to the public consultation undertaken early last year.
- The people and organisations who have communicated with the Executive over the last year with questions and comments about Freedom of Information.
- The members of the Scottish Freedom of Information Implementation Group.
Margaret Curran
15 March 2007