PUBLIC services are being placed beyond proper scrutiny with rights to access the data they hold increasingly eroded, Scotland's Information Commissioner has warned.
In a special report to Holyrood, Rosemary Agnew called for immediate protection of freedom of information (FOI) rights "from the damage caused by outsourcing" of core public services by bodies such as councils to the private sector, arms-length trusts and the third sector.
The Commissioner has also hit out at the failure in the decade since the legislation was introduced to extend FOI to non-public sector organisations delivering public functions, claiming provisions within the law have been "woefully underused".
The Scottish Government has the power to extend FOI to third parties that provide public services but has done so only once, in 2013 when local authority leisure and culture trusts fell under its scope.
It comes as Ms Agnew backed moves going through Parliament's public petitions committee for housing associations to be made subject to FOI.
Hundreds of thousands of Scots live in properties owned by registered social landlords (RSL), which receive vast sums of public cash and many of which were until recent years owned by councils.
Tenants in council housing can currently ask for information on various issues including the quality or timeliness of repairs and background to decisions on rent levels, however those in RSL properties cannot.
Ms Agnew said: "Worryingly our right to information is being slowly eroded. Rights have been gradually lost over the last 10 years as the responsibility for public service delivery is passed to third parties. These rights are fundamental to ensuring public services are open, cost-effective and accountable to the public.
"As the models for the delivery of public functions evolve and change, it is vitally important that the public's right to the information held about the services that deliver them are protected and strengthened."
She called for guarantees that whenever bodies delivering public functions or services change FOI rights would still apply as well as a review to identify where these have been lost over the past decade and to have these reinstated.
As well as social housing providers, Ms Agnew said private prisons should fall under FOI's remit.
The Scottish Government said it planned to go out to consultation on extending FOI coverage in the spring, once it had considered the Commissioner's report.
It said that following this it would lay a further order extending the legislation in Parliament this autumn.
Meanwhile, Ms Agnew said if the legislation was extended, prospective housing association tenants could ask about waiting lists, factored home owners could ask about the cost of repairs or materials used, while voluntary groups could use FOI for issues such as accommodation for the disabled.
Ms Agnew also said landlords were already considered public bodies in some areas of legislation and were required to respond to FOI requests for environmental information.
The Wheatley Group, which includes massive social landlord Glasgow Housing Association, said it was "totally committed to openness and transparency and the spirit of the Freedom of Information Act" but added: "It is our contention that the case for any extension of FOI to some or all RSLs in Scotland needs to be examined and considered in the context of an already strongly-regulated social housing sector and a number of other considerations and complications that might deem such a move to be, in certain regards, both impractical and unworkable."
The Scottish Federation of Housing Associations said RSLs were open and regulated and had specific requirements placed on them to provide information to tenants and services users.
It added: "There are several avenues of recourse available to any tenant or service user who does not feel they are able to obtain information from an RSL."
Campaigner Sean Clerkin, who is behind the petition to the committee, said: "This petition mirrors the broader political reality. It would bring more openness, transparency and accountability to housing associations, reflecting what the Information Commissioner wants for wider organisations."
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