Journalists' open letter attacks ministers' FOI performance

A group of 23 Scottish journalists have signed an open letter to MSPs calling for a review of Scottish Government practices in handling freedom of information (FOI) requests, the websites CommonSpace and The Ferret report.

Addressed to the five members of the Scottish Parliament selection panel for the appointment of the next Scottish Information Commissioner, the letter claims widespread failures to comply with the law, including "recent examples" of:

• information requests being repeatedly delayed significantly beyond the 20 working day deadline without clear justification or warning;
• emails asking for an update where such delays occur being routinely ignored;
• officials delaying responses for so long that the initial requests are only answered under the internal review procedure, so that further review has to be taken to the Scottish Information Commissioner, causing further delays;
• Scottish Government officials taking control of requests to other Government agencies without the consent of the applicant;
• requests being blocked or refused for tenuous reasons;
• requests being screened for potential political damage, and responses to individual journalists being routinely handled, by special advisers.

The journalists, from 10 newspapers, the BBC and STV, as well as the two websites and one freelancer, suggest that their experiences raise questions of whether information requests by journalists are being treated and managed differently, contrary to the requirement in the legislation for equal treatment of all requests, and that civil service resources and time for handling FOI requests have been cut.

The letter continues: “We are increasingly told the information we are seeking is not held where ministerial meetings with other bodies or individuals to discuss Government policy are said to be informal, minutes are not taken, and records are not kept. Correspondence and reports that should be available seem not to exist. This raises the question of whether Scottish ministers and civil servants now have a practice of not recording information that would previously have been recorded.

Although the Scottish Government has described itself as a "beacon of transparency under the Open Government Partnership", and says it is committed to becoming more open, accountable and responsive, the journalists believe their experiences "put that commitment under great doubt”. They point to concerns raised by Rosemary Agnew, the previous Scottish Information Commissioner, both in her decisions on individual appeals and in her annual reports.

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “We take our responsibility for FOI seriously and in the large majority of cases we respond on time and in full.

“At the same time, the increasing volume and complexity of some requests can prove time consuming, and has the potential to seriously impact on the work of Government. The number of FOI requests we receive has been steadily increasing, with more than 2,000 requests last year and more received in the first three months of this year than in the whole of 2007."

They added: “We are working with the Commissioner to ensure we continue to provide information in as timely a way as possible, while continuing to look for opportunities to proactively release information.”