In a comment piece on the Guardian Carole Ewart writes how the Scottish Government putting council services at arms length has damaged their Freedom of Information Act. 

The Guardian write: 

Though Scotland‘s Freedom of Information Act (FoISA) became operational back in January 2005, the growing use of arm’s-length management companies and outsourcing agreements by Scotland’s local authorities means that fewer and fewer public services are subject to the public’s right to know. The Scottish Information Commissioner, for example, estimates 15,000 council tenants lost their FoISA rights through stock transfer when they became tenants of housing associations.

This loss of rights has been compounded by sustained inaction by successive ministers, culminating this month in a refusal to fix the problem, despite assertions by Scotland’s Deputy First Minister that he believes “Scotland already has the most robust Freedom of Information regime in the whole of the UK”.

You can read the full story here. 

Matthew Burgess
http://www.mattburgess.co
I am a journalist and author. I am a journalist at the UK edition of WIRED magazine. In 2015, my first book Freedom of Information: A Practical Guide for UK Journalists, was published. My second book Reed Hastings: Building Netflix, was published in March 2020. I created FOI Directory in 2012 and have maintained it in my spare time ever since.