Why FOI really matters to The Herald
MONDAY is a big day in Scottish politics. SNP members will wake up to emails enabling them to vote for their next leader and the country’s new First Minister.
But Monday isn’t the only date to mark in your diary next week.
Tuesday is the deadline for two consultations on the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act, which has been giving people a legal right to information held by public bodies, subject to limited exemptions, since 2005.
One has been run by the Scottish Government, who are seeking “views and insights” with no binding action in mind.
The other is courtesy of the Labour MSP Katy Clark, who wants to introduce a member’s
Bill at Holyrood to modernise, extend and strengthen the law.
One would sharpen the teeth of legislation that can feel gummy as technology advances and public services evolve; the other looks like a paper-shuffling exercise.
I doubt Herald readers will need to submit an FOI request to work out which is which.
Ministers regard the current system as “fundamentally robust” and are not “proposing significant changes”, although they are generously keeping an open mind to “sensible” adjustments.
“The case for any new primary legislation must be thoroughly tested – and should only be considered where there are no satisfactory routes for improving the operation of the information rights regime within the current statutory framework,” they say.
Ms Clark, in contrast, actually wants to do something.
Her Bill, if supported, would extend FOI to all bodies delivering public services, not just state ones, crack down on FOI slackers, and make “proactive” publication of information a legal duty – ministers want a code of practice on the latter, but it probably wouldn’t be legally enforceable.
Ms Clark also wants better record-keeping in an age of disappearing Whatsapp messages and ministers potentially using private email accounts on the side.
That action, rather than selfsatisfied thumb-twiddling, is needed should be obvious.
The Herald this week revealed previously-secret registers of ministerial interests and recusals from conflicts using FOI law.
A similar register of interests has been published for UK ministers for more than a decade.
Officials in Edinburgh had the same material, but it was never public because, well, it just wasn’t.
In truth, it should have been put out “proactively” years ago.
The lofty “nothing to see here” attitude to FOI reform is lamentable. Worse, it sets the tone across the public sector.
Until that changes, The Herald will keep using the law in diverse and inventive ways, including the donkey work of reviewing and appealing decisions, to extract the facts and put them before you.