Freedom of Information

Freedom of Information Briefing

The Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 came into force in January 2005. The Act gives the public new legal rights to see information held by Scottish public authorities.

The Act is designed to allow the public greater information on how public authorities spend money and how decisions are made.

Public Authorities

Under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act the public has the right to get information from Scottish public authorities. This includes:

Scottish Ministers in charge of all departments of the Scottish Executive and its agencies.
The Scottish Parliament.
Non-ministerial office holders in the Scottish Administration, including the chief medical and dental officers; the chief inspectors of constabulary, prisons, fire services and school;, rent officers; social work inspectors.
Local government, including councils, assessors, fire services, licensing boards and the Strathclyde Passenger Transport Authority.
The National Health Service, which includes NHS boards, community health partnerships, hospitals, GPs, dentists, pharmacists, opticians and other health professionals.
Educational institutions such as universities and colleges.
The police.
Other public authorities, including more than 50 types of Scottish public authority not covered in the categories above. They range from the Scottish Arts Council to the Water Industry Commissioner for Scotland.
Companies that are wholly owned by one or more public authorities. These include, for example, companies set up by local authorities to explore new economic and transport initiatives and companies set up by universities to develop the products of their research commercially.

List of all current public authorities.

Publication Schemes

Every public authority in Scotland must produce a publication scheme. These schemes describe the information that the authority publishes, in what form it is published, and details of any charges for providing the information.

Details of publications that are available.

The public (including individuals and organisations) must make a written request if they wish access to items that are not available on the publication scheme. The public authority then has 20 days to produce the information requested.

Exempted Information

Some information is exempt from the Freedom of Information Act for example, personal information under the Data Protection Act. Other categories of information may be exempt in certain circumstances where the authority can prove there would be real and significant damage to the authority or to other people if the information were made public.

The public authority is required to give written reasons for declining access to a piece of information. In deciding whether it is in the public interest to provide information, authorities should not take into account:

the possibility of embarrassment to officials
the possible loss of confidence in the authority
the seniority of the people involved, or
the risk of the information being misinterpreted.

Local authorities hold financial information on contracts and services. Currently, it is not clear if this information is exempt from being released or not.

Costs

The charging structure for information is based on how much it costs a public authority to produce. Information costing les than £100 to produce will be free of charge.

If the cost to the authority is more than £100 but £600 or less, the authority can charge 10% of the cost of providing the information, but the first £100 is always free.

If the total cost to the authority is more than £600 the authority can refuse to process the request or can charge you the full costs (i.e. up to £15 an hour for staff time plus reasonable photocopying costs) over and above this £600 limit.

The charges will be agreed before work commences on producing the information.

Data Protection

The Freedom of Information Act is designed to work alongside the Data protection Act. So, if a service user or any other individual wishes to obtain information about him/herself, then the Data Protection Act 1998 will apply. However, if the information required is in relation to a public authority, then the Freedom of Information Act 2000 will apply.

More information on costs, data protection and all aspects of the Act is available via the Scottish Information Commissioner's website.

Commissioner Orders Release of Glasgow Tender Information

The Scottish Information Commissioner has ordered Glasgow City Council to release details of the successful bid for its Street Outreach Service for the homeless.

The bid, jointly made by the charities Glasgow Simon Community and Barnardo's, must be released in full following the Commissioner's refusal to accept that disclosure would damage the commercial interests of the bidders or reveal a trade secret.

The Commissioner found that much of the withheld information simply described the service to be offered, while any financial information was specific to the particular service in question and would therefore be unlikely to assist a competitor in any future tendering process.

The Commissioner also refused to accept Glasgow City Council's claim that the tender document constituted a trade secret. He found nothing unique or secret about the tender and noted that the manner in which the service was provided would be visible to anyone coming into contact with it.

Kevin Dunion, the Scottish Information Commissioner, said: "An interesting feature of this case is that it involved charities competing for a contract with a public authority.

"I found that the information did involve the commercial interests of Barnardo's and Glasgow Simon Community but I could not accept the Council's claims that these interests would be substantially harmed by release, particularly as much of the information was either already publicly known, or would shortly become so. In any case I took the view that it would be in the public interest for details of the successful tender to be made known."

The tender information was requested under freedom of information by Streetwork, another charity involved in the provision of homeless services. More information can be found on the Information Commission's website.

The Information Commissioner's Office has recently developed a framework code of practice for sharing personal information. In his forward Richard Thomas, Information Commissioner, acknowledges that sharing information 'can help make sure that the vulnerable are given the protection they need, that organisations can co-operate to deliver the care that those with complex needs rely on.' The framework has been developed to assist with managing the risks associated with information sharing particularly around personal privacy and public trust.

The framework is designed to encourage organisations to develop their own code of practice in order to approach information sharing in a consistent manner and to help decisions about information sharing to be made in a confident and professional manner.

The framework deals with situations where there are various agencies sharing information with each other. In this sort of case the Information Commissioner suggests that one code of practice be adopted to prevent any possible contradiction between individual codes.

The framework is divided into sections covering issues such as maintaining the security of confidential information once it is shared, the developing of Fair Process Notices to alert individuals how information about them is to be used as well as points to remember when asking for consent by an individual in order for information to be shared.

Housing Support Enabling Unit

Freedom of Information