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Commissioner points way ahead for FoI |
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Monday, 10 March 2008 |
Scotland’s Information Commissioner has mapped out how the next four years could increasingly see a more open society.
Kevin Dunion, who was recently reappointed to the post by Parliament,
said that public authorities had to build on their early success in
responding to the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act and he
intends to focus on those who have been slower to comply.
The transfer of functions from public to private organisations could be
removing the rights of service users and it was time to examine whether
some of these should come within the scope of the Act, he said. Dunion
added that work was also required to ensure that some groups – young
adults, people with disabilities, refugees and the homeless – were not
excluded from exercising their rights.
The commissioner intends to set new targets to reduce the time from
receiving an application to issuing a decision and he will examine
whether more cases could be settled through mediation.
In his annual report published today, Dunion discloses that
the Government and local authorities have been the subject of more than
two thirds of applications since the Act came into force in 2005; a
trend in line with countries that have similar legislation. However, of
the 1,574 appeals, only 101 were in response to requests to health
boards and 46 in the case of universities and colleges.
“At the heart of Freedom of Information legislation is a commitment to
providing people with the information necessary for them to understand
the activities of public authorities, to help them participate in
future decisions and to hold those same authorities to account for
their decisions,” said Dunion.
“It may well be that sectors such as health and education are
responding well to many information requests or they may be receiving
far fewer requests than they expected. Whatever the reason, we need to
understand better why appeals from these sectors are so low.”
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