Out-Law News 2 min. read
10 Mar 2009, 12:12 pm
Scotland's chief constables have pledged to publish their expenses, and Dunion said that others should do the same.
"There is a real need for public trust to be restored, and [Dunion] calls for a new model of leadership in Scotland, where all our public leaders expect to be held to account," said a statement from the Scottish Information Commissioner.
Dunion said that public transparency should expand beyond expenses information.
"Public trust is greater when people can see for themselves that public officials are doing a good job," he said. "This decision by Scotland's chief constables is a positive example of public sector leaders recognising the public interest in this kind of information. Leaders should see it as a matter of right, not offence, when they are asked for information. We need to see more such examples – and not just in relation to expenses."
Dunion has published his annual report and has outlined his priorities for the remainder of his term, which ends in 2012.
He will continue to press the Scottish Government to expand the reach of freedom of information (FOI) legislation to cover bodies which carry out the functions of government or local authorities.
"I have recently recommended to the Scottish Government that they should designate housing associations, leisure trusts and contractors delivering high-value public service contracts [as coming under FOI law]," said Dunion.
The FOI Act does contain a section which allows ministers to extend it to bodies which are not in themselves public organisations but which perform the functions of public bodies.
"It was the intent of Parliament that [that section of the Act] could and would be actively used," said a statement from Dunion's office. "What constitutes a 'public function' for the purposes of the Act is not legally defined, but is a matter of judgement for Ministers to make."
The Commissioner's annual report said that the office's work is moving away from contentious individual decisions and towards seeking a consensus on a problem.
"A greater number of cases under investigation are being settled or withdrawn as staff are increasingly working with applicants and authorities to broker mutually satisfactory outcomes without the need for formal decision," said the office's statement.
In a newspaper interview to coincide with the launch of his annual report, Dunion said that he believed that Scotland's public bodies were more committed to transparency than those in England.
"I discern a palpably different mood north and south of the border. I just wonder, where are the friends of FOI down south?" he said to the Sunday Herald. He told the paper that a good example of the difference was Justice Secretary Jack Straw's recent veto of the Cabinet minutes covering the decision to go to war in Iraq.
