It’s been 21 years since the legal right to access information became enforceable under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act and organisational culture in public services changed to “a presumption of openness and a belief that better government is born of better scrutiny”.

It is still a work in progress given the Scottish Information Commissioner was obliged to instruct his solicitors to bring legal proceedings against the Scottish government because they failed to meet two deadlines and comply with his December 2025 decision. It’s the first time such action has been necessary.

FoI cases that hit the headlines focus on information requests submitted and decisions on disclosure made in the past. The Scottish government’s recent Public Service Reform Operational Summit provides an insight on current practice as well as in future. At workshop 5, True Innovation: Building a Better Civil Service, participants discussed “how starting with the problem, rather than solution, can lead to more innovative outcomes”. In break out groups FoI was raised as a problem because “requests are being used in ways that disrupt services. They come in through multiple channels and consume large amounts of staff time. An innovative solution would involve FOIs handled without cost to the organisation, staff time freed up and user needs met without draining resources.”

Conversely other workshops participants highlighted the need to build public trust and implement cultural change including a shift in mindset towards shared accountability. That is not achieved by ignoring legal duties under FoI law. AI was discussed as a solution but it cannot replace public officials answering individual FoI requests and carefully scrutinising AI for accuracy and relevance.

The cost of FoI arose this week when the Scottish Parliament’s SPPA Committee published its stage one report on Katy Clark MSP’s FoI Reform Bill. The committee wanted more detail about the costs of implementing reform but that is problematic. When FoI law was introduced, the cost had to be absorbed by each of the 10,000 designated public bodies who had authority to set up compliance arrangements that suited them. Therefore providing standardised costs is impossible. Operationally FoI delivery is now a business as usual function so precise costings can rarely be disaggregated. What is readily available is evidence of savings in staff time, improved response accuracy and increased efficiency when FoI teams use software that has been purchased to serve multiple, corporate functions such as compliance with data protection law.

CFoIS welcomes the committee’s conclusion that “legislation is now needed to update the freedom of information regime in Scotland”. It echoes the 2020 PAPLS Committee inquiry report and its Legacy Report recommended “… that the next Parliament robustly pursues the committee’s recommendations to ensure that the Scottish government makes the necessary changes.” For six years ministers have declined to legislate so the member’s Bill is the only option. MSPs of all parties over the next nine weeks can ensure the bill is amended and passed by 25th March 2026 and CFoIS urges them to do so.