Ministers criticised for two-year delay in answering questions
SNP ministers have been subject to scathing criticism after they failed to respond adequately for two years to questions about how an independent Scotland would join the European Union.
The Scottish Government was slated for a “deeply concerning” approach to a freedom of information request from a member of the public in a ruling from the Scottish Information Commissioner, Daren Fitzhenry.
It was also criticised for failing to disclose “factual information” in relation to the request, wrongly claiming it was “outwith scope”.
Scotland’s membership of the EU was a key battleground of the 2014 independence referendum and the Brexit vote in 2016 has been claimed by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon as a justification for a potential second vote.
Ministers had been asked to provide correspondence on the topic of Scotland’s eligibility for EU membership from 2012 to the date of the request in August 2019.
The request included emails and letters between ministers, special advisers and government officials on that topic and analysis in relation to the Copenhagen criteria – a set of factors taken into account by the EU when assessing whether a nation state is eligible to join.
However, after a twoyear transparency battle, in which ministers were forced to row back on claims that they could keep factual information relating to the request secret, the Scottish Government admitted it had failed to respond appropriately to the request.
Among the failings admitted by the government during the investigation include failing to take a “sufficiently broad interpretation of analysis” that excluded “careful consideration of Scotland’s eligibility for EU membership”.
Despite these failings, officials were able to rely on a cost exemption, whereby releasing the information would cost more than £600 to the public body – when responding to the appeal to the commissioner.
This means that the information will remain secret and a new freedom of information request will be required, potentially delaying any disclosure by months.
The Scottish Government was contacted for comment.