THE public’s right to access information held by the Scottish Executive was highlighted by the Scottish Information Commissioner yesterday.
Kevin Dunion said that he wanted to raise public awareness of appeal procedures after the successful conclusion of the first ever formal complaint made under the Code of Practice on Access to Scottish Executive Information.
The case, the first to be considered by the commissioner, involved a newspaper’s attempts to access information held by the Scottish Courts Service.
Its successful conclusion has seen the Court Service make available, for the first time, information about the number of successful appeals against decisions made by every sheriff and High Court judge in Scotland.
Mr Dunion said yesterday that he was concerned the public was unaware of the appeal procedures process. “The fact there has never been a formal complaint before suggests to me that people are unaware of existing appeal procedures, not that they have always received the information they have asked for,” he said.
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As commissioner, Mr Dunion is responsible for enforcing and promoting the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002/3, which comes into force in January 2005. The Act will grant for the first time a legal right to access information held by Scottish public authorities.
In January this year The Sunday Times complained to the Scottish Information Commissioner in relation to a request for information made to the Scottish Courts Service. The newspaper had requested a list of convictions which resulted in successful appeals, for every sheriff and high court judge in Scotland in 2002. The request was refused by the Scottish Courts Service, saying it did not collect the information in the form requested by The Sunday Times and that it would be too expensive to do so.