THE conduct of John Swinney’s office is to come under examination in a probe by the Scottish Information Commissioner.
The watchdog is to investigate the handling of freedom of information (FOI) requests by the Deputy First Minister’s office.
Commissioner Daren Fitzhenry was asked to examine whether a request from Swinney and his special adviser Colin McAllister led to information being withheld from an FOI release.
In a letter to LibDem MSP Tavish Scott, who requested the examination, Fitzhenry confirmed the case would form part of a wider review into the Scottish Government’s handling of FOI requests. It will look into the role special advisers have in the process and determine if there is evidence of requests being blocked or refused for “tenuous reasons”, as well as the handling of politically sensitive requests.
Ministers previously told parliament special advisers only assess responses for accuracy, but research by lecturer and journalist James McEnaney suggests documents were removed from an FOI release at the request of Swinney and McAllister.
Scott said: “The Information Commissioner is quite right to investigate these serious allegations.
“The documents reluctantly released by the Scottish Government suggested that special advisers were interfering in the content of replies to freedom of information requests in the very same week that ministers told me and parliament they weren’t.
“What ministers would ‘prefer’ isn’t relevant when it comes to freedom of information. It’s a matter of the law and the public’s right to information which is clearly defined in legislation.
“We need to see a thorough investigation of the Scottish Government’s approach to information governance.”
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