Meeting of the Parliament 20 June 2018
The next question is, that motion S5M-12861, in the name of Rhoda Grant, on a review of Government FOI handling and record keeping, as amended, be agreed to.
Motion, as amended, agreed to,
That the Parliament notes the concerns raised on Scottish Government transparency in the intervention report from the Scottish Information Commissioner; notes the key findings that the Scottish Government’s FoI policies and procedures are not clear enough regarding the role of special advisers in responding to FoI requests; believes that the Scottish Government takes longer to respond to journalists’ FoI requests than other requests; considers that response times for journalists’ FoI requests have improved but can improve further; notes that the Scottish Government has accepted the commissioner’s recommendations in full and will develop an action plan as required by the commissioner to be published in September 2018; welcomes the proposed extension of FoI law to registered social landlords; agrees that the Scottish Government should consult on proposals to further extend coverage of Scotland’s freedom of information legislation, for example, to companies providing services on behalf of the public sector, and further calls on the Scottish Information Commissioner to make public the report on the government’s implementation of the action plan when approved annually.
Motions, questions or amendments mentioned by their reference code.