Open Update: FOI news from the Scottish Information Commissioner |
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FOI news from the Scottish Information Commissioner |
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eCase FOI Awards highlight simple steps for better FOI
What steps can authorities take to improve their FOI performance?
There were plenty of answers to this question at the 2025 eCase FOI Awards in March, as FOI staff from across the UK took time out to learn from one another, share good practice, and celebrate the winners of the 2025 Awards.
This year’s winners included NHS Informatics Merseyside (IM), which took home the Team of the Year award, while the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) won the runner-up prize in this category.
Alicia Jones from SEPA was also named Practitioner of the Year, taking joint first place with a colleague from the (UK) Environment Agency. The FOI Rising Star awards meanwhile, went to staff from South Kesteven District Council and Camden Council.
Themes emerging from the awards included the importance of resilience and the value of seeking opportunities to develop and improve when faced with challenges. More than one of our winners shared how the devastating experience of a cyber-attack nevertheless led to opportunities - amid the disruption - for organisations to ‘build back better’ and improve their FOI performance.
Want to hear more about some of the simple steps that led to FOI improvement? Click below to read more about some of the innovative measures shared by the 2025 award winners… |
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We've just had our busiest ever month... April was an extremely busy month for us – we received our highest number of FOI appeals ever, with 81 appeals made to us by people who were unhappy with a public authority’s FOI response.
We’ll be working hard to progress these appeals over the coming weeks, along with all of our other live cases. Keep track of our appeal caseload through our new ‘current investigations’ dashboard, which provides live updates on the progress of all our cases as they move through our office.
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Scottish Government explores extension of FOI to social care providers The Scottish Government has pledged to consult on extending FOI to care homes and ‘care at home’ services. This reflects the role these services play in delivering social care in partnership with NHS Boards and other agencies.
In preparation for this consultation, the Government established a Consultation Advisory Group in February 2025, to help shape the approach. The Group has a wide range of members, including representatives of care services, the voluntary sector, public bodies, trade unions and our office.
The Scottish Government will be providing updates on this work as it progresses through a dedicated Consultation Advisory Group webpage. Notes from the first meeting of this group will be published on this website shortly. |
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FOI gets the thumbs-up from Young Scots Over recent weeks we’ve been working in partnership with our friends at Young Scot, promoting FOI rights to young people through online guidance and an interactive quiz and competition. Since the project launched, more than 1,100 young people have completed our quiz, finding out more about their FOI rights in the process.
And what did they think? Well, FOI got a resounding ‘thumbs-up’, with 90% of respondents telling us that they felt FOI rights could be useful to them in future!
The quiz will remain open for a little while longer, so if you know a Young Scot member who’d like to take part, point them towards the Young Scot website! |
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A users' guide to FOI We recently hosted two online webinars aimed at FOI requesters, providing information, advice and guidance to help potential requesters understand their rights and use them effectively.
We’ll be publishing a recording of this webinar on our website shortly, sharing our guidance with anyone looking for more information. In the meantime, if you would be interested in exploring setting up an advice and guidance session for potential FOI requesters in your area, get in touch so we can discuss it further! |
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FOI Reform Bill coming soon... We understand that Katy Clark MSP’s Bill to reform FOI is due to be introduced in the Parliament within the next month. We’ll provide further updates on this in our next newsletter. In the meantime, register to join the upcoming Scottish Public Information Forum meeting (see below) for more information and updates on the Reform Bill. |
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When is information held only on behalf of a third party? Scotland’s FOI Act allows authorities to refuse requests if the information is held on behalf of another person. It’s important that authorities understand when they hold information and when it is held only on behalf of the other party.
In Decision 040/2025, the requester wanted all recorded information about a proposed cancer support centre. Some information was provided, but the authority argued that the remainder was held only on behalf of a registered charity, and that it had no control over the information held.
The Commissioner concluded that, as the authority and the charity shared facilities, IT and leadership (to a degree), the authority did have control over the information. We required the authority provide the requester with a new review outcome. |
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Authorities must remember their duty to advise and assist The FOI Act requires that authorities provide reasonable advice and assistance to requesters at all stages of the FOI process.
In Decision 031/2025, the Commissioner found that an authority had failed to offer any positive suggestions on how to reframe a request which it had refused.
Similarly, in Decision 030/2025, the same authority refused a request on cost grounds but gave no practical advice on narrowing the request - despite being asked by the requester. The Commissioner required the authority to reconsider the cost of complying with the request and liaise with the requester to agree appropriate search terms. |
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Sometimes information is just not held FOI gives people a right to request and receive the information that a public authority holds. Often requesters ask for information that they think should be held, only for the Commissioner to conclude that it is not held. This happened in Decisions 026/2025, 051/2025 and 048/2025. In all three cases the authority had notified the requester that the information was not held and, after an investigation, the Commissioner agreed with that position. |
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...and sometimes it is If an authority notifies a requester that information is not held, it must be certain of this. In Decision 031/2025, the authority initially claimed that the information wasn’t held, only to change its position during the investigation and agree that it was held, but compliance would exceed the £600 FOI cost limit. The Commissioner reminds authorities to conduct sufficient searches and fully understand the scope of a request before determining that information is not held. Authorities are expected to provide evidence supporting their claim that information is not held, rather than relying on assumptions or incomplete checks. |
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3 June 2025 - Managing requests about deceased persons - eCase webinar Webinar focussed on the often emotive and complex issue of responding to requests relating to deceased people. Find out more on the eCase website. |
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16 June 2025 - Scottish Public Information Forum (SPIF) meeting Online meeting of the SPIF, open to anyone with an interested in FOI and related issues. Speakers will include Katy Clark MSP and Commissioner David Hamilton. |
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7 July 2025 - Collection of FOI statistics for Quarter 1 2025-26 opens Opening date for submission of public authority FOI statistics covering the period between 1 April and 30 June 2025. |
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26 September 2025 - Scottish Public Information Forum (SPIF) meeting SPIF meeting to mark International Right to Know Day 2025. Registration details to be announced in due course. |
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TBC - Upcoming events We’re also working on some upcoming events which we hope to be able to announce shortly – so watch this space! |
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