Reform of FOI system is badly needed

There is no doubt Scotland’s Freedom of Information system is wide open to unacceptable manipulation by public authorities, with procedural delays designed to frustrate opponents and campaigners an all too regular occurrence.

Reform is badly needed, but typically the SNP Government failed to act and instead backbench Labour MSP Katy Clark tabled a member’s bill, which finally this week passed Stage One in Holyrood, with a majority of MSPs accepting its general principles, despite predictable opposition from the nationalists.

The bill isn’t perfect but if time runs out in this session before it becomes law, then the amendment I successfully tabled, to make sure it came back in the new session after the election in May, means the reforms will remain very much alive.

FoI is supposed to empower people, not exhaust them. They demand transparency, not excuses or barriers being put in their way. The public can see the SNP dragging its heels and for evidence they need only look at how the Scottish Information Commissioner has to go to court to force the Scottish Government to comply with his rulings.

By its actions, the SNP pays lip service to FoI and every time reform is delayed, resisted or stuck in a parliamentary holding pattern, it reinforces the perception that the powerful are more interested in protecting themselves than serving the public.

And whatever they may say now, the record shows that this week the SNP tried to vote down FoI reform.