Government accused of FOI secrecy
The Scottish Government was last night accused of routinely blocking the release of information including details of meetings the First Minister has held with prominent business figures.
The claim was made by Labour’s Neil Findlay during a Holyrood debate held to raise concerns about the way the Scottish Government handles requests made under Freedom of Information (FOI) legislation.
Journalists and politicians have complained about the Scottish Government delaying or blocking answers to requests made under the leg- 0 Neil Findlay called for a review into FOI legislation islation, originally introduced to promote open government.
In Holyrood, Mr Findlay listed a series of meetings attended by government ministers including Nicola Sturgeon and John Swinney for which no records had been made available.
They included Ms Sturgeon’s meeting with the financier Peter de Vink in Edinburgh’s New Club last year. Also listed was Mr Swinney’s one-toone with Angus Tulloch, the prominent fund manager and donor to the SNP – also in the New Club.
Another encounter was between Ms Sturgeon and Andrew Wilson, the former SNP MSP who is reviewing the economics of Scottish independence for the party.
Other meetings mentioned were one between transport minister Humza Yousaf with Phil Verster, then managing director of Scotrail, plus talks between Mr Swinney and officials from INEOS, the petrochemical giant hoping to introduce fracking to Scotland.
Mrfindlaycalledforareview into Freedom of Information legislation and called for it to be investigated by Holyrood’s standards committee.
“Scotland is not a pioneer in open government, it is a country where there is a systematic avoidance of scrutiny and accountability from the highest level down,” Mr Findlay said.
Replying for the Government, Joe Fitzpatrick of the SNP admitted that requests were not dealt with quickly enough saying their high volume led to delays. He claimed Scottish Freedom of Information legislation was stronger than in the rest of the UK.