Now councils want to charge fee for making information requests

COUNCIL chiefs have asked the Scottish Government for the powers to charge the public to make Freedom of Information requests.

East Lothian Council wants fees introduced to prevent local authorities being used as a ‘free research facility’.

It says it has struggled to deal with a deluge of FOI requests on time. Officers claim they received 1,143 requests by early October

this year, which cost £70,562 to answer – an average of £61.73 per inquiry. It is understood a selection of requests took an average of 106 minutes each to deal with.

In a submission to the Scottish Government’s post-legislative scrutiny committee, the council suggested applicants use FOI requests as a ‘free research facility for their own personal or financial advantage’. The statement, being considered as part of a consultation on FOI laws, went on to name journalists, students, solicitors and businesses as the primary culprits.

Currently, a £100 ‘fee threshold’ means applicants are not charged if the cost of gathering the information is below this.

The statement also suggested extending the 20 working days deadline to reply to FOI requests. It added: ‘It is not reasonable to expect councils to fund this increasing area of demand where front line services are facing financial pressure and service charges based on cost recovery are applied to other areas of activity.’

Four other councils made submissions to the committee – City of Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Angus and Glasgow City – with Angus and Glasgow laying out cost-related concerns.

But a submission by the National Union of Journalists said: ‘In seeking Freedom of Information requests, journalists are acting on behalf of the public and should not be treated as second-class citizens.’

East Lothian Council was taken to task last year by the

Scottish Information Commissioner over its failure to respond to requests on time.

One in three FOI requests was not responded to within the mandatory deadline, almost tripling the 12 per cent late record in 2017.

A council spokesman said: ‘We are aware that the quantity of requests made is having a huge impact on officers, diverting them from other core duties.

‘The council’s position is that it supports FOI but considers the current position means the council taxpayers subsidise this service and it would be fairer if the people who want the information paid for the time it takes to produce it in the same way as happens for environmental requests.’