from Sunday Herald, 30 January 2011
The Scottish government has bowed to pressure from big business and abandoned plans to end the secrecy enjoyed by private contractors.
Ministers have shelved their proposals to extend the scope of freedom of information legislation to cover the companies that build and run schools, hospitals, prisons and roads. The move had been fiercely opposed by the companies.
Other bodies which will also now escape designation under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act are trusts set up by local authorities to run leisure and cultural activities, Glasgow Housing Association and the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland.
The government’s U-turn has earned a strong rebuke from the Scottish Information Commissioner, Kevin Dunion. “I have consistently warned the government that freedom of information rights are under threat given the number of local authority trusts and private contractors used to deliver public services,” he told the Sunday Herald.
“Their designation would have ensured that freedom of information kept pace with these changes, so I am disappointed that successive Scottish administrations have failed to use their powers to protect and extend the public's right to know.”
Campaigners accused ministers of caving in to vested interests. “We are deeply disappointed that the government has reversed its position on extending the Act because of opposition from the private sector bodies themselves,” said Carole Ewart from the Campaign for Freedom of Information in Scotland.
“It would have been obvious to ministers before making these proposals that the contractors did not want to be covered, and we are amazed that merely because they have now said they don’t like the idea the government has shelved it.”
Ewart also warned that Scotland was now loosing its lead over England on freedom of information. South of the border the law was being extended to cover police chiefs, the Local Government Association, the Law Society and other bodies that were not going to be covered in Scotland.
“Scotland is now falling behind England,” she said. “When the legislation was originally passed, the Scottish Act was widely regarded as better than that which applied across the rest of the UK.”
The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) in Scotland lobbied strongly against the extension of freedom of information rights. It has warmly welcomed the government’s change of heart.
"Extending freedom of information obligations to private sector suppliers of public services would have been unnecessary, costly, and at odds with promises to simplify regulation and public procurement, so we are pleased that ministers have listened,” said CBI Scotland's assistant director, David Lonsdale.
The Scottish government accepted that there was “broad support” for increased openness and transparency. But it pointed out that “any extension of legislation is not favoured by the majority of those bodies proposed for coverage at the present time.”
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