Meeting of the Parliament 17 February 2026 [Draft]
It is almost 25 years since the passing of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002, also known as FOISA. My bill is not a criticism of that act, which has been a great success. Indeed, the same voices who campaigned for that legislation have been campaigning for the bill, such as the Campaign for Freedom of Information in Scotland and the late Jim Wallace—a prominent freedom of information campaigner who took FOISA through the Scottish Parliament.
In May 2020, as a result of campaigning for freedom of information reform along the lines that are being proposed today, the Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee produced a report with a range of recommendations and concluded that, although the 2002 act had significantly improved transparency, an urgent update of the law was needed. The provisions of the current bill were based on that committee report, the recommendations of all four Scottish Information Commissioners who have held that post since the 2002 act was passed, the consultation on the proposal for the bill and previous consultations.
The bill reflects proposals from freedom of information campaigners, FOI practitioners and the Information Commissioners. The bill would close loopholes, strengthen the power of the Information Commissioner and address the reduction in freedom of information coverage that has taken place since the 2002 act. Significant work has been carried out with the Information Commissioner, his policy and legal experts and others to ensure that the bill is workable.
I understand the concerns that have been raised about parliamentary time, but my concern is that no proposals have been brought forward by the Scottish Government since the 2020 committee report. I fear that, if the bill fails to pass stage 1 today, we will have the same debate again in five years’ time, still with no proposals forthcoming from Scottish ministers.
Whether it is in local government, justice, transport or social care, private companies have increasingly become major providers of public services, but they are not covered by current freedom of information laws. For example, when ferry services are publicly owned and funded, they are covered by freedom of information legislation, but that is not the case when they are publicly funded but run by private providers such as Serco NorthLink Ferries. Council house issues were previously subject to freedom of information but, when council houses were subject to stock transfer to bodies such as housing associations, that was no longer the case. It took 13 years of campaigning before information rights were reinstated by the current minister.
In most other areas, rights that have been lost over the past 25 years still have not been reinstated. The Public Audit and Post-legislative Scrutiny Committee in the previous session of Parliament and the Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee, in its stage 1 report on the bill, were right to conclude that
“legislation is now needed to update the freedom of information regime in Scotland”
and that the Scottish Government has been slow to exercise its powers under the 2002 act.
The Scottish Government has been asked to introduce legislation over a number of sessions of Parliament, but it has failed to do so, which is why I introduced this member’s bill. I was approached in 2021, when I was first elected to the Parliament, and asked whether I would proceed if the Government would not.
I welcome the Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee’s support for some of the bill’s provisions. It supported a requirement for the Scottish Government to consider proposals from the Scottish Information Commissioner to extend the number of bodies that need to comply with freedom of information law.