Motions, questions and answers

The Scottish Government’s response to the Commissioner’s intervention is documented by the three progress reports which the Commissioner has produced during the intervention. These set out the progress which has been made and the areas in which the Scottish Government still requires to make further improvement. The Scottish Government published its Improvement Plan 2022-23 in July setting out its action plan to address these areas of improvement.
As the member is aware, the Government pivoted to respond to the Covid pandemic in early 2020, and the subsequent redeployment of staff to critical areas, has affected the delivery of improvements. As the Civil Service itself recovers from the pandemic, we are taking the time to ensure that we embed continuous improvement in the structures which facilitate and deliver information access to ensure sustained improvement.
The Government’s ‘on time’ response rate over several months remains comparable with the wider public sector in Scotland. This performance has been sustained despite higher year on year request volumes (as at the end of October 2022, requests are up 48% on the previous three years), and increasing complexity of cases. The Government is committed to achieving the 95% target set by the Information Commissioner.