By Keith Aitken in Edinburgh | 3 February 2012
Public spending constraints could damage Scotland’s freedom of information culture, outgoing information commissioner Kevin Dunion has warned.
In an interview with Public Finance, Dunion identified a growth in complaints against authorities for not handling information requests correctly. He warned that as services were increasingly outsourced to arm’s-length trusts, private contractors and others, Scotland was falling behind the rest of the UK in enabling FoI.
Dunion, the first holder of the post of information commissioner, was speaking after presenting his final report to MSPs. He steps down in February, as required, after two terms during which he has won cross-party praise for embedding the 2003 FoI legislation in Scottish life.
The report described FoI as a success story, with people’s awareness of their rights at an all-time high and most public bodies seeing advantages in complying. But Dunion noted a 25% rise in the past year in appeals made to his office about cases, and said his successor needs greater powers.
He wants ministers to extend, by statutory instrument, FoI coverage to bodies such as the Confederation of Scottish Local Authorities, the Scottish Law Society, the chief police officers’ group and housing associations. Some UK equivalents are covered by FoI, with ministers at Westminster consulting on more.
Scottish ministers have resisted this path, although they did accept a recommendation from Dunion to make it easier to prosecute bodies that destroy information sought under an FoI request. He also wants powers to take evidence on oath.
Dunion told PF that he believed cash shortages were having an increasing impact on Scotland’s culture of transparency. ‘We’re probably at the indicator stage, but there are two significant straws in the wind,’ he said.
First, the volume of appeals on issues relating to employment or finance had soared in the past year from 14% to 25%. Second, ‘a disturbingly large proportion’ of the appeals reflected inadequate responses to FoI requests.
He said he had no direct evidence of compliance being pared on cost grounds but had seen press reports where chief constables and local authority chief executives were saying what they believe the cost was of increasing numbers of requests from journalists and MSPs.
Nor did Dunion see evidence that authorities were outsourcing to avoid FoI: ‘But the consequence in many cases is that that’s what’s happening. Therefore we need new designations.’
He dismissed claims that this would place burdensome costs on business, insisting that good FoI procedures saved money. And he urged Scottish ministers not to raise FoI fees, noting that the volume of requests ‘fell off a cliff’ when the Republic of Ireland hiked its charges.
Public spending constraints could damage Scotland’s freedom of information culture, outgoing information commissioner Kevin Dunion has warned.
In an interview with Public Finance, Dunion identified a growth in complaints against authorities for not handling information requests correctly. He warned that as services were increasingly outsourced to arm’s-length trusts, private contractors and others, Scotland was falling behind the rest of the UK in enabling FoI.Dunion, the first holder of the post of information commissioner, was speaking after presenting his final report to MSPs. He steps down in February, as required, after two terms during which he has won cross-party praise for embedding the 2003 FoI legislation in Scottish life.
The report described FoI as a success story, with people’s awareness of their rights at an all-time high and most public bodies seeing advantages in complying. But Dunion noted a 25% rise in the past year in appeals made to his office about cases, and said his successor needs greater powers.
He wants ministers to extend, by statutory instrument, FoI coverage to bodies such as the Confederation of Scottish Local Authorities, the Scottish Law Society, the chief police officers’ group and housing associations. Some UK equivalents are covered by FoI, with ministers at Westminster consulting on more.
Scottish ministers have resisted this path, although they did accept a recommendation from Dunion to make it easier to prosecute bodies that destroy information sought under an FoI request. He also wants powers to take evidence on oath.
Dunion told PF that he believed cash shortages were having an increasing impact on Scotland’s culture of transparency. ‘We’re probably at the indicator stage, but there are two significant straws in the wind,’ he said.
First, the volume of appeals on issues relating to employment or finance had soared in the past year from 14% to 25%. Second, ‘a disturbingly large proportion’ of the appeals reflected inadequate responses to FoI requests.
He said he had no direct evidence of compliance being pared on cost grounds but had seen press reports where chief constables and local authority chief executives were saying what they believe the cost was of increasing numbers of requests from journalists and MSPs.
Nor did Dunion see evidence that authorities were outsourcing to avoid FoI: ‘But the consequence in many cases is that that’s what’s happening. Therefore we need new designations.’
He dismissed claims that this would place burdensome costs on business, insisting that good FoI procedures saved money. And he urged Scottish ministers not to raise FoI fees, noting that the volume of requests ‘fell off a cliff’ when the Republic of Ireland hiked its charges.
