Commissioner refuses information appeal over "rendition" report
Scotland's Information Commissioner has refused an appeal by an individual seeking disclosure of an interim Police Scotland report to the Lord Advocate regarding his investigation of alleged "rendition" flights passing through Scottish airports.
Rosemary Agnew, the Commissioner, ruled that the public interest lay in favour of upholding the exemption under freedom of information law for information held for the purposes of a criminal investigation.
The investigation was instructed by the Lord Advocate in 2013 following information provided by The Rendition Project. Police Scotland was asked to establish whether there was any evidence of crimes having been committed, and a senior investigation officer produced a report which was the subject of the request.
The request was made by Marc Ellison, who argued that the Scottish public were entitled to know whether or not adequate progress was being made towards establishing whether "their skies had been implicated in flying people to detention without trial (and potentially torture)", which he considered a considerable public interest argument in favour of disclosure.
Mrs Agnew accepted that the exemption applied, and therefore the question was whether the public interest favoured disclosure of the information or the maintenance of the exemption. Section 34 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act reflected an inherent public interest in ensuring the proper and effective conduct of police and similar investigations. There were strong arguments, she said, supporting the view that it was generally in the public interest to preserve the integrity of information relating to the investigation of a crime or potential crime, and in general it would not be in the public interest to disclose information if this would undermine the confidence of the public in that part of the justice system or the ability of police officers to gather comprehensive information.
In the present case there was a stronger public interest in maintaining the exemptions contained in s 34 in relation to the withheld information, and in protecting the steps taken by the police to conduct and complete a thorough investigation and the procedures in that investigation.