This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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Debate of Freedom Of Information
02/11/2005
A debate on the early days of the implementation of the FOI Act took place in Parliament today.
Parliamentary Business Minister Margaret Curran said that Freedom of Information is working to lift the veil of secrecy.
Ms Curran added:
"The Executive enthusiastically introduced this legislation. It is a principle of good governance that shows we are as open and transparent as possible. This encourages the machinery of government into behaviours that are more open, outward looking and inclusive.
"Our aim is to empower the ordinary citizen, to allow them access to information that is important to themselves and their local communities. That is what we are looking to achieve here - a shift in culture from a presumption of secrecy to a recognition of the public's right to know.
"The public are becoming confident in their use of FOI - that confidence will increase as they see its potential to hold to account those with powers and influence.
"And while the early days show there have been many successes - more than 5,000 government files are now available for public inspection at the National Archives of Scotland which normally would have been kept closed for 30 years or more for example - there is also evidence that things could be better.
"We are already committed to reviewing the operation of FOI, in particular, considering whether to extend the list of bodies subject to the Act and the level and operation of the fees.
"I want that review to take a thorough look at the early experiences of FOI and we will be seeking views later this year and into 2006 from public authorities, users, campaigning groups, and the whole range of stakeholders to feed into what I see as "fine tuning" which will enable continued successful implementation of FOI in Scotland."
The FOI(Scotland) Act 2002 came into force on January 1 2005.
The review being proposed will allow individuals and public bodies to express views on any aspect of the operation of the new regime, in particular the operation of the fees, public bodies that are or should be within the scope of the legislation and whether there is a continuing need for a Ministerial certificate protecting certain G8 related information.
There are currently around 10,000 bodies covered by the Act from the Scottish Parliament and Executive to individual GP practices.
The G8 certificate was signed in May 2005 and certified that certain limited information relating to national security for the G8 Summit in Gleneagles was exempt fro release under section 31 of the FOI Act, subject to an assessment of the public interest. Now that the summit is complete, it is appropriate to review the certificate to see whether it is still needed in whole, in part of at all.