1. FREEDOM OF INFORMATION IN PRACTICE?
Jane Mackenzie
Scottish Executive - FOI Unit
Presentation for
Records Management Society – Scottish Group Meeting
9th June 2005

2. What I will talk about today?
First few months – practical experience
Information disclosed
Early impressions of key challenges
On-going support and training
Key messages going forward

3. Experience in the Executive – Still early days – so caveats
What is “reality”?
How “real” have the first few months been?
Is the Executive’s experience unique?
What is an FOI request anyway?
Will Scottish Information Commissioner reach the same conclusions?

4. HEADLINE FIGURES FOR SE
About 1000 requests in the first 3 months
Between 31 and 124 requests per week – average about 80
70% requests from media sources
New information has been released in about 60% of cases
About 25% of the cases go to review and 5% to appeal
SE counts for about 20% of OSIC appeals (35 SE cases currently being considered by OSIC)
Full report for January – March 2005 cases being produced

5. NEW INFORMATION RELEASED?
SE spending on child poverty initiatives
Costs of trunk road congestion
Wine stocks at Bute House
Background info on agricultural subsidies
Past Ministerial engagements
List of files produced in 1982 (28,000)
Papers from 1980s on community charge
Catering in hospitals
etc. see the Recently Released Information (disclosure log) at

7. KEY PRACTICAL ISSUES?
Managing the difficult balance between disclosure and protection of information
Managing workloads
Need to produce Schedules and lists of documents considered for release/non-release
How to manage and make available disclosures
Learning how to do reviews and respond to appeals

8. HELP AND SUPPORT? FOI Unit Guidance – FOI Unit intranet pages
Lead Officers
Senior Departmental FOI Lead Officers
Specialist advice – lawyers, procurement, press office, records management

9. On-going FOI training for staff?
Attendance at Managing Information and Records course
FOI Presentation on the Learning Gateway
Read at a minimum the Practical Guidance notes
Lead Officer training courses
Other possibilities under consideration – refresher courses, e-learning?

10. CONCLUSIONS? 20 days is challenging – don’t delay starting work
FOI is as much about handling relationships as handling information
Sound judgement is essential, but there is no substitute for good process
Early decisions by Scottish Information Commissioner will be crucial
The first six months are unlikely to be genuinely representative

11. AND ALSO - BE PROACTIVE!
Publication scheme commitments and on-going development of scheme
Publish FAQs/background policy papers with new policies/decisions
One-off exercises to put substantial amounts of material on the web can be time-consuming but may be well worth-while

12. Thank you for listening!
Any questions?