Freedom of Information in Scotland - update

Hi all - see launch of call for evidence from Scottish Parliament into FOI:

Dear Ruchir,

I am contacting you in your capacity as a member of the Open Government Network to bring to your attention that the Public Audit and Post-Legislative Scrutiny Committee has today launched a call for written views to inform its post-legislative scrutiny of the Freedom of Information Act (Scotland) 2002. The Committee is keen to examine how FOI works in practice and whether the Act can be modernised or otherwise improved to increase transparency in our public services.

The Call for Views can be accessed here: https://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/CurrentCommittees/111249.aspx

I’d be grateful if you would circulate this link to other members of the Open Government Network. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any queries.

Kind regards,

Alan

Alan Hunter
Assistant Clerk
The Scottish Parliament

Hi all - just a reminder:

The Public Audit and Post-legislative Scrutiny Committee has issued a call for written evidence on the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 with a closing date of Friday 10 May 2019.

The call for written evidence can be accessed here:

https://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/CurrentCommittees/111249.aspx

  1. In your view, what effects has the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA) had, both positive and negative?
  2. Have the policy intentions of FOISA been met and are they being delivered? If not, please give reasons for your response.
  3. Are there any issues in relation to the implementation of and practice in relation to FOISA? If so, how should they be addressed?
  4. Could the legislation be strengthened or otherwise improved in any way? Please specify why and in what way.
  5. Are there any other issues you would like to raise in connection with the operation of FOISA?

Hi All,

I’ve set up a collaborative analysis page here: https://opengovpioneers.miraheze.org/wiki/Scottish_Institutional_transparency#Response_to_review_May_2019

I really need your help with this - I’m struggling to do this myself and will not be submitting by May 10th without your input. Please reply here or add directly to the wiki page above.
Thanks in advance, Ruchir.

Dear All,

Yes we are working on our response and will be submitted by the end of this week. CFoIS will draw on its 19 years of working on this issue and will be calling for FoISA to be extended to those delivering public services and services of a public nature. We believe the right should follow the public money. Of course that will mean that some voluntary organisations will be affected such as SCVO.

FYI, there is a very useful SPICe briefing on FoI Acts https://www.parliament.scot/S5_Public_Audit/General%20Documents/FOISA_SPICe_February_2019.pdf

Best wishes,

Carole

Carole Ewart

Convener, Campaign for Freedom of Information in
Scotland

Tel: 0141 222 5975

Mob: 07768 794689

https://www.cfoi.org.uk/scotland/ cfoiscot@gmail.com

Thanks Carole,

Are you okay to share with us your draft response, so we can pick up useful info from it to restate it in our own responses.

Thanks for putting this together Ruchir.

I’ve submitted a short analysis on the scope of coverage FOISA based on the definition and list of “public authorities”, the need to consider how the levers for allowing other bodies to fall under FOISA (ministerial order) have been used, and reflecting on who is involved in delivering public services.

The proposal is that the different types of actors that local and central government use to deliver public services (ALEOs, private third parties, community planning partnerships, etc.) may need to be considered in the post-legislative scrutiny process if FOISA is to meet its purpose.

Hi All.
I really appreciate the input above.
However, I do not have enough here to submit something myself by Friday.

I’ve therefore tried to bring some of the existing openly shared info over the past year at
https://opengovpioneers.miraheze.org/wiki/Scottish_Institutional_transparency#Response_to_review_May_2019

I hope it’s been useful and am glad I’ve been able to work with all of you in getting the FOISA review on the cards, to this stage.

If the ScotParl committee wants to explore impact on third sector, we will of course review that in more detail. But for now, I’m not planning to submit an SCVO response to the committee.

Happy to discuss if required.

A final plug for information on our website you might find useful for any submissions.

The full range of our briefings on the key concepts in FOI law, issues and exemptions: here
Commissioner’s role and functions: here
Appeal rights: here
Fees and charges for information: here
Which bodies are subject to FOI: here
Timescales for responses:here

Feel free to beg steal and borrow!
If you’re stuck with any detail about how FOI works, you are welcome to contact us

Me again!

The Commissioner’s submitted his views on the post-legislative scrutiny - you can read them here [it’s the first item under the heading 2019].

The main suggestions:

Increased emphasis on regulatory intervention into authority practice: The OGN has had concerns about the practice of individual authorities. So I think you’ll be interested in the suggestion to strengthen the Commissioner’s powers to intervene when an authority’s FOI performance is a concern. We suggest interventions should have similar strong enforcement powers as appeals.

Bringing the FOI publication duty up to date: Transparency initiatives are driven by lots of aims (economic benefit in the information, anti-corruption, etc). Only FOISA requires authorities to publish information in which there’s a public interest (i.e. what is of serious concern and benefit to the public). The idea is to move to a statutory Code of Practice which sets out the outcomes and minimum authorities have to achieve. The OGN has loads of collective experience about what information should be published, where it should be published and the importance of consistency, making information searchable, etc.

Remove the ministerial veto in FOISA

Allow the Commissioner to investigate FOI appeals about the Lord Advocate, Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service and the Scottish Information Commissioner (yes, there’s no right to appeal information requests made to us).

Prevent reliance on confidentiality clauses in contracts where public services are provided on an authority’s behalf

Happy reading!

Best wishes

Sarah

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