The Scottish Government

Freedom of Information ( Scotland ) Act 2002

Report on information requests handling in the Scottish Executive

January - December 2005

Introduction

The Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOI(S)A) came into force on 1 January 2005. Under FOI(S)A, anybody may request information from a Scottish public authority which holds it and is entitled to be given it by the authority.

This report covers the first year of FOI(S)A in force and relates to the handling by the Scottish Executive of requests for information received during the period 1 January 2005 - 31 December 2005. [ 1]

Content of report

1. Number of requests
2. Timeliness of responses
3. Outcome of requests
4. Use of exemptions
5. Internal reviews of requests
6. Appeals to the Scottish Information Commissioner
7. Conclusion

• Annex 1 - Detailed Tables
• Annex 2 - Scottish Executive disclosure log

1. Number of requests

The provisions of FOI(S)A apply to all valid requests for information made to the Scottish Executive. Receiving and responding to requests for information is part of the normal business of the Scottish Executive and thousands of communications are received each year. Most requests for information are, therefore, handled routinely and not recorded or counted centrally.

For monitoring purposes, in line with the FOI(S)A Section 60 Code, certain requests are notified by recipients to, and logged by, the Executive's FOI Unit. [ 2] This report is based on this subset of the information requests received by the Executive. This includes requests for information where, in the main, the requested information would not have been routinely provided prior to the coming into force of FOI(S)A. The scope of monitoring also includes requests where requested information is not held, where there are cost/fee implications or where requests might be considered vexatious.

^[1]

(The associated Environmental Information Regulations (EIRs) also came into force on 1st January but numbers of requests under the Regulations have been low and are not separately analysed in this report.)

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It is important to be aware that the detail provided in the report must be treated with caution. Request handling is not undertaken centrally which means that data may not all be complete. The report, therefore, simply provides a snapshot of the Executive's approach to FOI request handling in the first year of compliance.

During the year 1800 requests for information were logged by the FOI Unit. This report is based in the main on an analysis of 1492 of the requests received - 83% of the cases in this central record of requests. (NB Some of the analysis is based on smaller numbers of requests. In some instances this is the 1345 requests remaining after invalid or withdrawn cases or cases handled by Executive agencies have been excluded. In other instances it is the 1087 resolvable requests for which the information requested is held by the Executive and it was considered for release.) The numbers of requests received and centrally recorded in the second 6-month period were significantly lower than in the first 6-month period - 592 compared with 1208.

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2. Timeliness of responses

FOI(S)A requires public authorities to respond to written requests for information as soon as possible, and in any event within 20 working days of receipt. Of 1345 requests, 1015 (75%) of the Executive responses were sent within this required deadline. Of the 330 responses which were sent after the 20 day deadline, 188 (57%) were sent out under 10 days late. This means that 142 (10%) of the requests received during 2005 were subject to a significant delay in response time (more than 10 days late). (See Annex 1 Table 4)

(FOI(S)A, unlike the equivalent Act for England and Wales, does not include powers for a permitted deadline extention where longer consideration of the public interest in disclosure or non-disclosure may be required).

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3. Outcome of requests

Of the 1492 requests analysed, 185 (12%) requests were for information which either the Executive does not hold or does not hold for the purposes of the Act as determined by Section 3(2) of the Act. 74 (5%) requests were refused on the grounds that to comply with the requests would be in excess of the prescribed amount (£600). A number of the requests recorded were withdrawn or still await further clarification from the applicant. (See Annex 1 Table 2a)

For the 1087 resolvable requests for which the information requested is held by the Executive and it was considered for release, 745 (69%) of the requests resulted in new information being released with full disclosure occurring in 389 (36%) cases.

(See Annex 1 Table 2b)

In cases where new information has been released, this information is progressively being collated and published on the Executive's website and listed in the disclosure log ( Recently Released Information. )

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4. Use of exemptions

Under FOI(S)A a public authority can refuse to provide requested information that it holds if the information falls within one or more of the categories of exempt information listed in Part 2 of the Act. One or more of the exemptions was applied to some or all of the information considered in 698 (64%) of the 1087 resolvable requests where information was considered for release. The most commonly applied exemptions were those related to formulation of policy and effective conduct of public affairs (Sections 29 and 30). (See Annex 1 Table 3 and bar chart)

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5. Internal reviews of requests

Applicants are able to ask a public authority for an "internal review" if they are not content with the public authority's initial decision on whether to release requested information. For this period 241 reviews of original decisions have been requested - so in 18% of cases the Executive has been asked to review the response to a request. In approximately 11% of the review cases the original decision was overturned either fully or in part. (See Annex 1 Table 5)

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6. Appeals to the Scottish Information Commissioner

Applicants who are still not content with the outcome of an internal review can make a formal appeal to the Scottish Information Commissioner ("application for decision by Commissioner"). By the end of 2005, 79 Executive request responses had been appealed to the Scottish Information Commissioner. It appears that approximately a third of the cases where a review was requested have subsequently been appealed to the Commissioner. As applicants have six months from receipt of the response to their review request in which to make an appeal to the Information Commissioner, it is difficult to be precise with this figure. Appeals on some 2005 cases could potentially still be made during 2006. .

Overall, of the 1492 requests which were received by end December 2005 and where outcomes have been analysed, approximately 5% have gone to appeal. To end of December 2005 the SIC had made decisions in 25 of these appeal cases. In 8 cases the Executive was required by the Commissioner to release some or all of the information which had been withheld. The Executive raised appeals in the Court of Session on 2 of these cases (cases to be heard in December 2006).

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7. Conclusion

Freedom of Information underpins a long-term cultural change towards greater openness across the Executive and the Scottish public sector as a whole. This will not be achieved overnight and it may be that experience during the first year does not reflect the start of a long-term pattern. It clearly demonstrates, however, that people are exercising their new rights and that a wide range of information has been made available as a direct result of information requests. The FOI Unit will continue to monitor how the Executive is responding to requests for information and will produce further reports on activity during 2006. Reporting requirements will be reviewed at the end of 2006.

Scottish Executive FOI Unit

March 2006

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ANNEX 1 - Detailed Tables

Table 1

Graphs showing number of requests centrally logged by the FOI Unit weekly in the period 1 January to 1 July 2005 and 2 July 2005 to 31 December 2005

Table 2

Detail of outcome of FOI requests 1 January to 31 December 2005

a) Overall

b) Resolvable requests

Table 3

Number of times individual Sections (Exemptions) have been used for refusals or partial release (table and bar chart)

Table 4

Numbers of Requests received by Executive Department and timeliness of response (table and bar chart)

Table 5

Number, percentage and outcome of reviews

ANNEX 1 - Table 1

The following graph plots the number of requests which have been notified to and logged by the FOI Unit on a weekly basis in the period 1 January to 1 July 2005.

The following graph plots the number of requests which have been notified to and logged by the FOI Unit on a weekly basis in the period 2 July to 31 December 2005.

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ANNEX 1 - Table 2

(a) Breakdown of FOI requests 1 January to 31 December 2005

The following table provides an overall breakdown of the position with regard to the FOI requests which have been centrally logged by the FOI Unit in the periods:

1 January to 1 July 2005 - Of the 1208 cases logged, analysis has been undertaken on the handling of 85% (1022) cases.

2 July to 31 December 2005 - Of the 592 cases logged, analysis has been undertaken on the handling of 79% (470) cases.

In total, 83% (1492) of the 1800 cases have been analysed.

(b) Breakdown of outcomes of the resolvable requests

Of the 1492 requests analysed, 1087 of these were resolvable requests - those where information was actually held and considered for release (i.e. excluding those where refusal was based on s12 - Excessive cost of compliance). This table presents the decision made with regard to these requests.

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ANNEX 1 - Table 3

Use of exemptions

The following table provides information on the sections used in the application of exemption in the following cases:

1 January to 1 July 2005 - 501 cases where exemptions were applied (255 refusal responses plus the 246 partial release responses).

2 July to 31 December 2005 - 197 cases where exemptions were applied (87 refusal responses plus the 110 partial release responses).

In total, 698 cases have been analysed where exemptions were applied. The totals do not add up to 698 because a number of the responses cited more that one section.

Table 3

Use of Exemptions (bar chart)

This table provides an analysis of the 698 cases where exemptions were applied. It illustrates the level of use of particular sections of the Act by the Executive.

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ANNEX 1 - Table 4

Requests by Department and timeliness of response

The following tables give the number of FOI requests received during January to June, and July to December broken down by individual Departments. This analysis is based on the

· 1022 processed requests which have been analysed for January to June (750 for January to March, and 272 for April to June).

· 470 processed requests which have been analysed for July to December (233 for July to September, and 237 for October to December).

but excluding requests which were invalid or withdrawn or where SE agencies had lead responsibility.

January - March

April - June

July - September

October - December

January - June

July - December

Table 4

Bar chart showing timeliness of response

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ANNEX 1 - Table 5

Internal Reviews

The following table provides information on the requests for internal reviews of FOI response decisions which have been made in connection with requests which were originally received in January to June 2005. As with Table 4 the data below is based on the 1345 validated FOI requests which were analysed. 241 requests for a review of the original response to a request have been received. Reviews are, therefore, being requested in 18% of cases.

January - June

July - December

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ANNEX 2

Scottish Executive disclosure log

The Executive's policy is that where we release information in response to a FOI request we recognise that it will usually be of interest to the wider public in addition to the original applicant. Executive staff are, therefore, advised to publish information which they have released to an applicant as soon as possible via the Scottish Executive website.

The Recently Released Information log provides a list of the information which has been released in response to FOI requests.

See Freedom of Information Disclosures list on the Executive's website

There were 167 separately logged items on the FOI disclosure log at the end of 2005. Information included on the disclosure log might have been disclosed in response to a number of similar individual information requests received around the same time but it will only appear once on the disclosure log.

The information published within the disclosure log is wide-ranging and includes information on the following topics:

· Costs incurred by Ministers (e.g. hospitality and office running costs)

· Details of official Ministerial engagements

· Information relating to Bute House

· The Holyrood Building Project (e.g. information on Lord Fraser's appointment as Chair of the Project)

· EU Agricultural grants and subsidy arrangements

· The operation of Freedom of Information within the Scottish Executive

· Waiting times for breast, lung, colorectal and ovarian cancers

· The Healthy Respect National Health Demonstration Project

· The establishment of the Cultural Commission

· Travel allowances

· Expenditure on promotional campaigns and advertising

· The Fresh Talent Initiative

· Housing transfer in the Scottish Borders

· Press Office correspondence with the BBC

· Bids from the schools on the Schools of Ambition programme