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Scottish Information Commissioner 2013/14 Annual Report Taking FOI Forward Contents, Facts and Figures

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Scottish Information Commissioner 2013/14 Annual Report Taking FOI Forward Contents, Facts and Figures Scottish Information Commissioner 2013/14 Annual Report Taking FOI forward Contents, facts and figures 2013/14 was a year of firsts… 62% 578 Rosemary Agnew 62% of our appeals were from We received 578 appeals Scottish Information Commissioner members of the public in 2013/14 Commissioner’s welcome Enforcing FOI: Our appeals Enforcing FOI: Our appeals See page 2 See page 4 See page 5 24% 75% 24% of our valid appeals were made We met our target and closed 75% 61We settled 61 cases without following a failure to respond of cases within 4 months the need for a formal decision Enforcing FOI: Our appeals Enforcing FOI: Our investigations Enforcing FOI: Our outcomes See page 6 See page 7 See page 10 % 20% 78% 67We found wholly or partially 20% of our decisions Awareness of FOI amongst in favour of requesters in 67% concerned requests for the Scottish public is at 78% of our decisions environmental information Enforcing FOI: Our outcomes Enforcing FOI: Other issues Regional Fact Files See page 11 See page 13 See page 14 Annual Report 2013/14 1 The costs that arise from FOI are outweighed by the 60,000+ % increase in transparency 100 and accountability to the 100% of attendees at our FOI citizen that result. Scottish public authorities reported workshops for the voluntary sector receiving over 60,000 FOI and EIR rated them as ‘good’ or ‘excellent’ Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon requests across the year Holyrood FOI Conference, December 2013 Strengthening FOI: Our events Strengthening FOI: Our events Strengthening FOI: Our research See page 16 See page 18 See page 20 900+ 2,008 Over 900 people subscribe to our 80+Over 80 service-users contacted We received our highest number weekly round-up of decisions us to share positive comments of enquiries to date, at 2,008 about our service Managing the organisation: Managing the organisation: Strengthening FOI: Our guidance Our approach Our enquiries See page 22 See page 25 See page 26 …so what can 100% £1.69m you expect in 2014/15? We responded to all of our Our total expenditure for information requests within the year was £1.69 million 20 working days Rosemary Agnew Scottish Information Commissioner Managing the organisation: Managing the organisation: Our information requests Our financial performance The last word See page 27 See page 28 See page 29 2 Annual Report 2013/14 Commissioner’s welcome It was also the end for some things, …enabling and supporting Scottish in particular our authority assessment public authorities to develop and maintain programme. From April 2014 we are high standards of FOI policy and developing a new approach to assessing practice… We want to add value, by authority FOI practice, which we believe helping authorities to help themselves. will deliver improvements in a more One of the ways we do this is through effective and value-for-money way. publishing a weekly round-up of the decisions we have taken and the key If all of this sounds a bit cryptic, let me learning points (positive and negative). give you more insight into what is to We do the reading for you, so that we come in the report. can all learn from each other. We also draw attention to significant decisions FOI is well-established in Scotland. But that have set precedents, and to very more than that, the principles underlying straightforward decisions that are simply it are important to us all; accountability, good examples. openness, transparency, customer service. Our challenge is to live those …positively influencing cultural change principles in the way we use and apply in Scottish public authorities’ approach FOI, ensuring that we both meet statutory to meeting their FOI duties… It is not 2013/14 was a year of “firsts”. For the requirements and, more importantly, enough for authorities to know what first time, Scotland has collected and add value to the way in which public their duties are. We think it is equally collated national statistics about FOI authorities and service users communicate important that they, and others, know requests. For the first time since 2009 and interact. In 2012/13 I laid my Strategic how effectively duties are being delivered. we saw a slight drop in appeals to the Plan before the Scottish Parliament. Since introducing the self-reporting by Commissioner. We received over 2,000 I set five strategic aims which focus on authorities of FOI data each quarter enquiries for the first time. We launched adding value to our FOI regime, so that (which we then publish through our the first of our Regional Roadshows. it contributes towards our collective aims web-site), we have seen many authorities It was the first full year of our Decisions of openness and service improvement. introduce internal reporting systems Round-up. We provided training to through which they reflect on FOI culture and leisure trusts, the first bodies All of my office’s activity focusses on performance such as response times. to be designated by an order made by contributing directly to our aims; both for The good news from the statistics Scottish Ministers under section 5 of the my organisation, and more importantly is that less than 1% of requests result FOI Act. And as if all of that were not for open and transparent access to in an appeal to me. enough, here at the Commissioner’s information in Scotland. We don’t just office we carried out ourfirst want FOI to be good, we want FOI to comprehensive review of the way we move forward and develop as public investigate applications and were among authorities and requesters develop. the first Scottish public authorities to So what have we been doing towards have our Records Management Plan our strategic aims? You will have to approved by the Keeper of the Records read the whole report to get a full picture of Scotland. but here are a few tasters… Annual Report 2013/14 3 22 The Commissioner is supported by a team of 22, (FTE* 20), as at 31 March 2014. * FTE: Full time equivalent …encouraging effective and responsible …influencing and supporting the …being recognised as an organisation of use of FOI rights… This year saw the development of Scottish information law accessible experts, that is run efficiently, launch of regional roadshows. We visit and policy… We supported the order governed effectively and leads by an area and offer seminars, workshops made by Ministers under section 5 of example… In January 2014 our Records and meetings to a range of stakeholders. the FOI Act to make cultural and leisure Management Plan (a requirement under These include sessions for requesters bodies delivering services on behalf of the Public Records Scotland Act) was and the local media which focus on how local authorities subject to FOI. This order approved and is being used by the to use FOI effectively. followed the amendments made to FOI Keeper as an example of good practice. by the 2013 Amendment Act, about which we published a detailed briefing. Rosemary Agnew Scottish Information Commissioner Terms used: FOI Freedom of information The FOI Act The Freedom of EIRs The Environmental Information Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (Scotland) Regulations 2004 4 Annual Report 2013/14 Enforcing FOI: Our appeals Anyone who is unhappy with the way a request for information has been handled by a Scottish public authority can appeal to the Commissioner. Total appeals by legislation In 2013/14 we received 578 appeals. Appeals made to FOI Act EIRs Although this was a slight fall (2.7%) on us under the EIRs 33 the previous year, appeal numbers remain 413 high. The good news is that the reduction appears to be attributable to a slight drop 2009/10 380 in appeals about failures by authorities % 37 to respond within timescales. 12 2013/14 424 We saw the sixth consecutive rise in 2010/11 387 appeals made to us under the EIRs, 48 with 12% of our appeals across the year relating to requests for environmental 10 % 523 2012/13 information. 2011/12 475 60 594 9% 2012/13 534 2011/12 67 578 2013/14 511 Who appeals? Appeals by type of requester 2013/14 As always, by far the largest proportion of our appeals came from members 3% Commercial / private enterprise 3% Voluntary / campaign organisation of the public. These accounted for 62% Elected representative 1% Community council of new appeals in 2013/14 (represented as 3% (MP, MEP, MSP, Councillor) ‘Public and other’ in the chart to the right). 1% Solicitor Solicitor The number of appeals received from 5% (on behalf of client) journalists increased this year, with these now accounting for 14% of our total appeals, compared with 12% last 8% Prisoner year. Many of these appeals were made 62% Public following a failure by a public authority and other1 to respond within the 20 working day timescale. We explore this further on 14% Media page 12. 1 ‘Public and other’ represents all individual members of the public with no identified affiliation to an organisation or group. Appeals by sector The largest proportion of our appeals 2% 1% 1% 1% were about requests made to local government, which includes all of 1% 1% 2% 1% Scotland’s 32 local councils and local licensing boards and assessors. 2% 3% 5% 5% The Scottish Government and its 9% agencies continued to account for 9% a significant proportion of appeals, 43% 41% with one quarter of our new appeals 7% about central government. 11% 30% 25% 2012/13 2013/14 Local government Non-ministerial office holders Scottish Government and its agencies Bodies not covered by the FOI Act2 Other public authority Educational institutions The NHS Scottish Parliament Police Publicly-owned companies Subject of appeals The subject matter of our appeals Administration of the authority 21% was as diverse as ever, reflecting the Safety and crime 7% enormous range of issues about which Environment 6% people exercise their FOI rights.
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