Celebrating and Reforming FoI Rights in Scotland
Celebrating and Reforming FoI Rights in Scotland
Scotland’s Freedom of Information (FoI) rights have empowered over 1.4 million requests in 20 years, driving transparency and public trust. As the Scottish Parliament debates major reforms, this blog explores what’s at stake: lessons learned, challenges ahead, and how Scotland could set a global standard for openness. With public consultation now open, discover why your voice matters in shaping the future of FoI and human rights in Scotland.
Celebrating and Reforming FoI Rights in Scotland
It’s the free enforceability of FoI rights in Scotland that makes them powerful and gives them public credibility. Robust transparency and accountability mechanisms build public trust because informed scrutiny is enabled. By comparison, human rights law has not yet realised its potential to change lives so there are lessons to learn for human rights defenders, on the implementation of FoI law over the last 20 years.
The Campaign for Freedom of Information in Scotland (CFoIS) believes curiosity in the mechanics of democracy plus determination to grasp the power of information and improve decision making in public services, has prompted over 1.4 million information requests since 2005. Requests are made by individuals, journalists, politicians and groups across Scotland. It appears most receive the requested information in full or in part as only 3% of requests are subject to internal review and less than 1% are appealed to the Scottish Information Commissioner. 79% of appeals come from members of the public. By 2011, a textbook on Scottish FoI case decisions and practice was published which ran to 493 pages. So, an ever growing portfolio of guidance on how to implement the law and exposure for those public bodies which get it wrong. So far, 10,000 public bodies are covered ranging from individual GP practices to local authorities and colleges.
Independent polling in 2024 revealed that 88% of people have heard of FoI, 97% agree it is important for the public to access the information held by public bodies, 83% believe FoI helps prevent bad practice in public bodies and only 6% think FoI is a waste of public money. In contrast, Polling for the SHRC in 2023 revealed that just 48% of the public support human rights and disagree with negative messages about human rights, which is up 7% from 2017.
FoI law enables pro-active enforcement by the Commissioner and currently the Scottish Government, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and NHS Forth Valley are under a Level 3 intervention because of legal compliance issues. As there are only four levels, this is so not good. In July, the Commissioner declared the NHS Forth Valley FoI response times over the last 18 months had been “terrible” and said “It is up to the Board to grasp the issues and to properly resource and support its staff in fulfilling these statutory duties.” Leadership on FoI delivery is just as important for human rights.
Despite the positives, CFoIS is clear that FoI law needs strengthened so has cataloged the problems and worked for reform including publishing a Bill and Explanatory Notes in January 2022. We have collaborated with Katy Clark MSP on her Freedom of Information Reform (Scotland) Bill, which is currently at Stage 1 in the Scottish Parliament. The Bill will close legal loopholes, update the law passed 23 years ago, designate FoI officers in each public authority to ensure FoI is understood as a core function and strengthen the enforcement powers of the Commissioner. As a small NGO, we have learnt much from the process and recognise that other legislation can be co-produced with politicians of all parties. For example, in the next Parliament consider coalescing around a short Bill to amend the Scottish Commission for Human Rights Act 2006 to delete section 6 which currently bans the SHRC from offering advice, guidance and grants to anyone even considering taking a case. Apart from being a reputational embarrassment, this enforcement deficit compares unfavorably with elsewhere in GB as the EHRC faces no such operational ban. One small amendment will have a big impact to deter and to provide a remedy through test cases using the Human Rights Act 1998.
Of course, on the horizon is the tantalizing prospect of a Human Right Bill for Scotland but that depends on the election and the direction of travel of the new Scottish Government. Human rights activists want change now and are getting frustrated that delivery is slow and apparently complicated. The lessons and benefits from FoI activities are clear.
On 26th September, CFoIS will host another meeting of the Scottish Public Information Forum to celebrate 20 years since the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FoISA) became enforceable and discuss if Scotland will become a global leader in progressive legal reform through Katy Clark’s Bill. At a time when other countries are curbing civic activism and undermining FoI rights and duties such as in Mexico, Tunisia and Hungary, Scotland can lead the way by introducing an enforceable duty to pro-actively publish information and a new process to speed up the FoI designation of providers of public services that currently operate in the shadows.
The Stage 1 consultation process on the Bill is now underway and response are requested by the SPPA Committee by 22nd October. Please support our Bill campaign and make your voice heard. Briefings are available on the CFoIS website to inform your submission.
Carole Ewart is the part time Director of the Campaign for Freedom of Information in Scotland and a public policy and human rights consultant.
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