Co-authored by
Kathryn Wynn
The freedom of information (FOI) regime needs a
"re-think", Scotland's outgoing information
commissioner has said.
In a report laid before the Scottish Parliament
prior to leaving office to take up her new role as Scottish Public
Services Ombudsman on 1 May, Rosemary Agnew said public authorities
are currently getting bogged down in handling an increasing number
of requests for information.
The authorities also adopt a tick-box approach to compliance
with their
duty to proactively publish certain information, "rather
than an opportunity to use the framework to promote and enable the
dissemination of information", she said.
Agnew suggested a "simpler framework to both administer and
use" could be established to help "engender the
fundamental cultural shift that is needed to move Scotland that
stellar step from publication because it is something we have to
do, to openness and transparency because that is how we want to
be".
