Forty journalists sign open letter seeking stronger Scots FOI law

Forty journalists have signed an open letter calling for the freedom of information legislation in Scotland to be expanded and strengthened.

Writing to Holyrood's Public Audit & Post Legislative Scrutiny Committee, which is carrying out a review of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002, the authors remain critical of the performance of the Scottish Government in responding to FOI requests.

Two years ago, many of the same journalists signed a letter accusing the Government of obstructing requests for information and screening them for "political damage". The Scottish Information Commissioner subsequently required ministers to make improvements, and the new letter recognises that processes have "improved in line with" commitments made.

However it continues: "We still experience problems with the Scottish Government and have had repeated difficulties accessing information from other public bodies, including the NHS, local authorities, Police Scotland and universities. We believe there are strong, substantive reasons to consider updating, strengthening and expanding FoISA, many of which echo the suggestions made by Mr Fitzhenry [the Commissioner] in his evidence to the committee on 10 January 2019...

"The Act was written before digital technology and storage was in widespread use and we agree with Mr Fitzhenry that public bodies should make much greater use of open data, with much greater emphasis on voluntary publication of data, procurement contracts and so on. In general, the public sector needs to invest much more heavily and consistently in open data and information disclosure, underpinned by new legislative standards of transparency. It is remarkable how many times public bodies repeat failures to properly handle information requests after the SIC has upheld complaints in exactly those areas."

They go on to request consideration of further reforms, including a clear duty to record meetings and communications, except in strictly limited curcumstances, much clearer duties on public bodies to follow best practice in handling requests, and have regard to previous rulings by the Commissioner, and a review of whether the sanctions for breaches of the legislation available to the Commissioner should be strengthened, to improve compliance.

A Scottish Government spokesperson said it was important to note that Scotland already had "the most open, far-reaching freedom of information laws in the UK – and we are working to widen the coverage even further". Last year 91% of Scottish Government FOI responses were issued on time with the number of requests increasing by nearly 12%.

They added: “The Commissioner said there was ‘no doubt’ that significant improvements had been made in the Scottish Government’s FOI performance and found no evidence of improper motives in the application of exemptions or special advisers holding any decision-making power in the process."

Click here to view the letter.