Freedom of Information --- how to use it and why

The club met at its new venue, the New Golf Club, with some members also joining online, for a talk from the Scottish Information Commissioner, Darren Fitzhenry, on ‘Freedom of Information, How to use it and Why’. The Commission has offices in St. Andrews where its function is to promote and enforce the public’s right of access to information held by Scottish public authorities, such as the Scottish Government, Local Councils, Health Boards and the Police Force. Mr Fitzhenry outlined the background to his role, which was created under legislation passed in 2002 to facilitate access to information held by organisations that provide public services. Ordinary members of the public have as much right to this information, to help them to take part in debate on issues of public importance, as do journalists and the like, and they are not required to say why a request is being made. Prior to the introduction of the legislation, public authorities only issued the information they wanted to release; that situation has changed and transparency is now an important part of the system. The legislation has given rise to some eighty thousand requests being received each year. Mr Fitzhenry encouraged his audience to request any information they may require, to which the relevant authority must respond within a defined time period. If unhappy with the response, the applicant is entitled to ask for further information to be provided. There are exemptions, for instance on grounds of national security, and repeated requests on a sole topic, or requests which may be expensive to fulfil, can be denied, but even historic information that may be held in a variety of different storage formats is eligible.  Mr Fitzhenry highlighted that requests about decision-making and actions relating to the Covid19 pandemic have been very important. Douglas Jackson thanked him for leaving his audience already much better informed.