Meeting of the Parliament 21 June 2017
Today marks the third time in as many weeks that we are discussing the Scottish Government’s issue with transparency. We bring to the chamber today not just our concerns as Opposition parties but the concerns of the public, journalists and many individuals and third parties.
I am used to ministers engaging in the dark political art of avoiding answering questions on important issues such as the Scottish economy, health waiting times, education standards or digital skills deficiencies, or concerns over named person legislation and Police Scotland—I could go on. In fact, anyone who was in the chamber for portfolio questions today had to sit through a painful 40 minutes of apologies and excuses—coulda, shoulda, woulda—from the front bench.
The answers that ministers give generally follow a pattern—that of deflection—and usually involve the words “Tories”, “UK Government” and “Westminster”. In fact, we have heard UK Government bingo played already today. However, although the Government can brush us off in the Parliament, people outwith the chamber have had enough. People have an absolute right to ask robust questions of their Government—and to get robust answers.
There is no anti-Government conspiracy here today. How do I know that? Because our criticisms are not made in isolation. Yesterday, I was contacted by a constituent who regularly lodges FOI requests with the Scottish Government on a wide range of topics, from radiotherapy staff numbers to safety in sport. He forwarded me the responses that he received and none of them even remotely resembles an adequate response.
We are having this debate today because something has gone deeply wrong with the SNP’s understanding of transparency. In today’s The Scotsman, the Government responded to my criticisms by saying:
“Scotland has the most open and far-reaching freedom of information laws in the UK.”
Perhaps, but having far-reaching laws is not the same as adhering to those laws. That is simply no defence.
The Government went on to say:
“We take our responsibility for FOI seriously and in the large majority of cases we respond on time and in full.”
If that is the case, why are more than 20 per cent of requests—more than double the national average for public bodies—responded to late? If that is the case, why are requests from journalists being delayed beyond 20 days with no justification? If that is the case, why are we finding out that there was not a single minuted meeting between the minister in charge of the Forth replacement crossing project and the main contractor in the crucial six months from October to March? If it is the case that Scottish ministers take FOI seriously, why are they not sending written updates to the Foreign Office after official overseas visits, as per the Scottish ministerial code?