Committee
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee 26 February 2026 [Draft]
26 Feb 2026 · S6 · Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee
Item of business
Scottish Information Commissioner
David Hamilton
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We are at the top of the chain, if you like, or the bottom of the chain—whichever way you look at it. When we see these cuts, we see failure demand and failure of the public authorities to deal with it. The number of authorities that are failing to respond to applications has again gone through the roof, and that is simply down to capacity issues. Often, freedom of information and data protection officers wear a dual hat, and an upsurge in subject access requests gets pushed on to the information office.Of course, with data protection, there are financial penalties and a tangible cost to organisations, so I suspect that the chief executives will be thinking that that is probably a priority under the legislation. I understand that perspective, but the problem is that it causes failure to respond to FOIs, which then come to our office to be dealt with. We are having to work through a huge number of cases just now, and capacity issues seem to be the problem.
In the same item of business
The Convener
Lab
Welcome back. Under agenda item 4, the committee will hear evidence from David Hamilton, the Scottish Information Commissioner, on his annual report and the ...
David Hamilton (Scottish Information Commissioner)
I should first point out that, as the annual report covers the period 2024-25, the earliest date that it covers was 22 months ago, and it finishes in April 2...
The Convener
Lab
Thank you for that. As is the convener’s prerogative, I will kick off our questions.You have touched on the fact that the report is a historical document, an...
David Hamilton
I guess that depends on what you think the tunnel is.In general, I am an optimist, which is why I always make a point of emphasising the fact that the regime...
The Convener
Lab
I have always had an interest in your work with regard to children and young people and underrepresented groups. We have spoken in the past about the challen...
David Hamilton
Last year, we did some great work with Young Scot to raise awareness of freedom of information rights. As I have said previously, one of the challenges is wh...
The Convener
Lab
I will park the question of the extent to which AI can amend FOI for a possible future conference, and I will bring in Sue Webber.
Sue Webber (Lothian) (Con)
Con
In your opening remarks, you mentioned the rise in numbers, and the annual report records that there were 98,605 information requests last year, which contin...
David Hamilton
For the last four quarters, it is 110,000.
Sue Webber
Con
Do you mean 110,000 each quarter?
David Hamilton
No, it is 110,000 in the year. We count back on quarters. In April 2025, there were 98,000 requests in the previous four quarters. We have now hit 110,000 up...
Sue Webber
Con
I am sorry convener, but this is a bit off-piste. Digitalisation in the NHS is a bit of a challenge, because we have all these health boards potentially doin...
David Hamilton
Health is always a problem, and that is perhaps understandable because it is one of the most complex sectors. That is definitely a challenging area. There ar...
Sue Webber
Con
You talked about that surge, but the foreword of the annual report suggests that some public authorities are reducing their information rights resourcing. If...
David Hamilton
Going back to how I can assist with that, we are having those conversations. When the team comes in and looks at a failing authority, that is when we identif...
Sue Webber
Con
Do you mean recruitment freezes?
David Hamilton
Recruitment freezes, yes. That is what you and I would call them. I am getting too used to speaking in this vocabulary.Those are the excuses that we get, and...
Sue Webber
Con
You have perhaps reflected on this and mentioned it in some of your responses, but what impact do the cuts to freedom of information resourcing in public aut...
David Hamilton
We are at the top of the chain, if you like, or the bottom of the chain—whichever way you look at it. When we see these cuts, we see failure demand and failu...
Sue Webber
Con
You have a very small team, so are you perhaps suggesting that you might need more resources in your team?
David Hamilton
We are absolutely to the bone. As I said in the report, the problem is that there is no elasticity in our resourcing. I can track that and anyone can see on ...
Sue Webber
Con
Thank you, David.
The Convener
Lab
Emma, can I pass over to you?
Emma Roddick (Highlands and Islands) (SNP)
SNP
I want to ask about appeals. I know that the number of appeals is still roughly proportionate to the number of requests that are coming in, but, as you were ...
David Hamilton
We have brought in a Power BI system, which essentially gives us a huge amount of management information about what is coming in. We can now visualise the pr...
Emma Roddick
SNP
On the soft limit of five, you mentioned exceptions. What type of exceptions would you consider?
David Hamilton
We have not had any cases that we have treated as exceptions. We brought in that approach a month or so ago. You always need to have a backstop, so that you ...
Emma Roddick
SNP
So, you are thinking case by case whether it is legitimate, rather than thinking about the person, such as a journalist or an MSP, and why they might have mu...
David Hamilton
No, it is nothing like that; it is about the content. We have a validation process, so that, after that, when cases come in, we do not have to think whether ...
Emma Roddick
SNP
How much of the increase in appeals and in cases overall is a result of certain individuals putting in more, rather than the wider public becoming more attun...