Holyrood claims ‘most open and transparent’ FOI regime in UK after Westminster accused of operating ‘Orwellian’ unit
Policies including delaying Freedom of Information (FOI) requests from journalists and getting clearance on disclo - sures from government special advisers no longer takes place in Scotland, the Scottish Government has claimed.
The declaration came after Open Democracy reported the UK Government run an ‘Orwellian’ unit in the Cabinet Office where journalists are regularly blacklisted or have their requests for information “stonewalled” and unanswered.
The ‘Clearing House’ unit instructs different UK Government departments on how to respond to Freedom of Information requests and shares personal information about journalists. This could be breaking the law due to the principle that Freedom of Information requests should be “applicant blind ”– meaning whoever makes the request should not matter. The UK Government insisted the ‘ Clearing House’ is necessary to deal with more complex requests and increasing transparency.
The Scottish Government was heavily criticised in 2018 for similar practice in a report by the Information Commissioner. Darren Fitzhenry, the commissioner at the time, found “unjustifiable, significant delays” in some cases and that journalists and political researchers were subject to an “additional layer of clearance” that he recommended should end.
The same report criticised the Scottish Government’s practice of referring FOI requests for clearance by ministers simply because they came from journalists, MSPS or researchers. At the time, the Scottish Government said it was “happy to accept” Mr Fitzhenry’s recommendations, which included improvements to clearance procedures, quality assurance, training, case handling, monitoring and review procedures.
When asked whether any of the practices alleged to take place within the UK Government still take place in Scotland, a Scottish Government spokesperson said any such practice had stopped. The spokesperson said: “Scotland has the most open and transparent Freedom of Information regime in the UK. We recognise the importance of upholding information rights and have made changes to our processes as part of an action plan that has supported improvements to our FOI performance over the last three years .”