24 February 2006
Scotland's information commissioner, Kevin Dunion, has voiced concern over the failure of some public authorities to respond to requests under the Freedom of Information Act and called for an improvement in performance.
In his first annual report published this week, he said there had been 'mute or deemed refusals' from a number of authorities and that 571 appeals had been made.
He added: 'Often when I contact the public authority about the appeal, they then release the information, but this may be months after the original request. It is perhaps not unexpected in the first year that there will be such failings but, nevertheless, I would like to see improvements in Scottish performance.'
Dunion said he appreciated Scottish public authorities had only a short period in which to prepare their organisations for the FoI Act coming into force but he stressed that the duty to respond within 20 working days was not onerous in most cases.
'I hope to see an improvement in this area in 2006,' he added.
PFfeb2006
