The Scottish Information Commissioner () is responsible for the promotion and enforcement of the

Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 The Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (asp 13) was an Act of the Scottish Parliament passed in 2002. It covers public bodies over which the Scottish Parliament has jurisdiction, fulfilling a similar purpose to the UK-level Freedom of Inf ...

(FOISA) and th
Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004
Scottish EIRs). The current Scottish Information Commissioner is David Hamilton who took up post on 16 October 2023.

Background

This legislation generates thousands of requests to Scotland's public authorities for information. Often these involve high profile, controversial or sensitive matters, which have to be resolved when appealed to the Commissioner. The Commissioner employs 21 staff in

St Andrews St Andrews (; ; , pronounced ʰʲɪʎˈrˠiː.ɪɲ is a town on the east coast of Fife in Scotland, southeast of Dundee and northeast of Edinburgh. St Andrews had a recorded population of 16,800 , making it Fife's fourth-largest settleme ...

Fife Fife ( , ; ; ) is a council areas of Scotland, council area and lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area in Scotland. A peninsula, it is bordered by the Firth of Tay to the north, the North Sea to the east, the Firth of Forth to the s ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

, to help him investigate and decide upon cases, provide information to the public on their rights, and assess whether Scottish public authorities are following good practice. FOISA came into full force on 1 January 2005, at the same time as the Scottish EIRs. In July 2010, the 1,000th decision was issued by the Scottish Information Commissioner. The Commissioner publishes information on the number of cases he has on hand on his website. The Commissioner issues guidance for public authorities on their obligations under FOISA, and publishes information on rights to information for the public. The Commissioner is appointed by The King on the nomination of the

Scottish Parliament The Scottish Parliament ( ; ) is the Devolution in the United Kingdom, devolved, unicameral legislature of Scotland. It is located in the Holyrood, Edinburgh, Holyrood area of Edinburgh, and is frequently referred to by the metonym 'Holyrood'. ...

, and is an independent public official who makes legally enforceable decisions. They can be enforced by the

Court of Session The Court of Session is the highest national court of Scotland in relation to Civil law (common law), civil cases. The court was established in 1532 to take on the judicial functions of the royal council. Its jurisdiction overlapped with othe ...

and public authorities may be held in

contempt of court Contempt of court, often referred to simply as "contempt", is the crime of being disobedient to or disrespectful toward a court of law and its officers in the form of behavior that opposes or defies the authority, justice, and dignity of the co ...

if an authority fails to comply with a decision notice.

Holders of the Post

The first Commissioner was Kevin Dunion, appointed in February 2003. Towards the end of his second term he proposed extra powers that he thought that the next Commissioner would need. He left office on 23 February 2012 after two terms - a total of nine years in office, during which time he handled some 1,500 cases. It was announced on 3 February 2017, that Rosemary Agnew, the previous Scottish Information Commissioner, would be stepping down on 30 April 2017 and taking up a post as the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman on 1 May 2017. In June 2017, Fitzhenry was nominated for the role, having previously worked in the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

's legal branch. Former

Police Scotland Police Scotland (), officially the Police Service of Scotland (), is the national police force of Scotland. It was formed in 2013, through the merging of eight regional police forces in Scotland, as well as the specialist services of the Scottis ...

Inspector David Hamilton is the current Scottish Information Commissioner having been nominated by the Scottish Parliament on 28 June 2023 ‡ held the post temporarily while it was vacant

References

External links

* Freedom of information in the United Kingdom Information technology organisations based in the United Kingdom Information Comm Regulators of Scotland Scottish commissions and inquiries Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body {{Humanrights-stub