Meeting of the Parliament 21 June 2017
If Mr Findlay had bothered to listen to anything that I said last week, he would have heard me making the point. We are clear that our performance is not what it should be and I was clear about that last week. We are in the process of trying to improve.
Before I cover the actions that we are taking to improve our performance, I will address some of the concerns that were set out recently by the media and members of the Scottish Parliament. We do not get everything right and I recognise that, at times, people have had reason to be unhappy with our performance.
First, as I have already said, we accept our performance is not what it should be and we are working to improve it. Secondly, it is important to recognise that the vast majority of requests are answered on time. When a response is late, officials will send a holding reply and where possible, that will give an indication of when to expect a response. It is clearly unacceptable when that does not happen and that is an area we are working to improve.
It is not in the interests of the Scottish Government to block or refuse requests for tenuous reasons or to miss a deadline—as has been suggested. Information can be withheld only for valid reasons. The ultimate arbiter of that test is not the Scottish Government but the Scottish Information Commissioner, whose decision is final.
Public bodies handle their own individual requests—any other practice would be in breach of the law.