Scottish Government: The cynical crawl on tackling secrecy

How easy is it to persuade the Scottish Government to do something?

If you’re looking for a council tax freeze, it’s pretty straightforward. You just vote for a Labour MP at a badly timed by-election and your wish is their command.

But if you want to know how your council is spending your tax, or how the government spends it, then I’m afraid you’re in for a slog.

Especially if the millions are being paid to a private or third sector contractor to deliver a public service like social care.

You’re probably going to have to wade through a lot of arid financial reports, submit freedom of information (FoI) requests, and then bash your head against a brick wall.

Because when it comes to helping the public get the facts, rather than helping itself to cheap headlines, the Scottish Government isn’t easy to persuade at all.

Take, for instance, Access to Information Rights in Scotland, published by the SNP parliamentary business minister George Adam on Tuesday.

One of his responsibilities is Scotland’s FoI regime, now two decades old, having been set up by a 2002 Holyrood Act, albeit one that took effect in 2005.

Like his predecessors, Mr Adam publicly insists the regime is rock solid, while privately wondering who in God’s name came up with such a scourge for politicians.

The report is the government’s response to a consultation on beefing up the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act. There is a recurring theme inside, almost a catchphrase.

“The Scottish Government is not persuaded…”

The document is a masterclass in doing nothing.

There is no rush, no urgency, no sense of the public having a deep-rooted right to know how its institutions operate and how its money is spent. Just a glib drawl that nods to the niceties.

Those who fear the government is too fond of secrecy – a universal quality in governments, to be fair – will find their suspicions confirmed.

Read more:

Unspun | Is there a chance of success for Scottish Government's heat pump plans?

Take the timescale. Even after accounting for Covid, tiggerish it ain’t.

The report goes back to work started by Holyrood’s Public Audit and Post-Legislative Scrutiny Committee in March 2018, fleshed out in 2019, and published in May 2020.

It criticised the government’s slow pace in extending FoI to new bodies, backed the inclusion of bodies paid “significant public funds” to deliver services, and suggested copying Ireland and stopping public bodies from hiding information through confidentiality clauses.

Thirty months later, in November 2022, the government finally consulted on these and other proposals, and now, a year after that, Mr Adam has responded to the consultation.

He concludes the regime is “fit for purpose” and does not propose to introduce any new primary legislation before the parliament ends in 2026 to amend the 2022 Act.

(The last time it was amended this way was in 2013 by an Act just four pages long).

Instead, he’ll twiddle with some guidance and be “open” to new law at some future point.

Scuppering confidentiality clauses in public contracts? “The Scottish Government is not persuaded that the case has been made for any amendment to legislation in this area.”

Letting public bodies that don’t have the right information pass FoI requests to those that do? “The Scottish Government is not persuaded of the merits of making this change.”

Ending the First Minister’s (never used) power to veto the release of information? “We do not propose to prioritise new legislation in relation to this issue.”

You get the picture. As for the twiddling, it looks epic.

There will be more exhaustive consultations – on revising the code of practice for handling FoI requests and on extending FoI to care homes and ‘care at home’ services. However the latter must “take account of the regulatory impact on providers”, so don’t hold your breath.

There is also the surreal. Public bodies can refuse FoI requests which would cost more than £600 to answer, based on staff costs of £15 an hour. The figures date from 2004.

Sign up for Unspun, Scotland's top politics newsletter.

The government plans to revise both in light of inflation, but in such a way that it still works out at 40 hours of staff time. It’s a change without any discernible difference.

Instead of action and enthusiasm for the public’s rights, there is time-wasting and cynicism for the benefit of ministers and officials.

From a minute-averse, WhatsApp-hoarding government that has been in FoI special measures for six years because of its poor record-keeping and disclosure practices.

It strikes me as a shoddy state of affairs. Are you persuaded?