Correspondence and other information held by Communities Scotland
Mr David Emslie (Mr Emslie) made two separate sets of information requests seeking a wide range of information from Communities Scotland, which was at that time was an agency of the Scottish Government. These requests are reproduced in Appendix 2 of this decision.
Communities Scotland responded to the first set of requests by stating that it had already supplied much of this information to Mr Emslie and to supply the remainder would exceed the prescribed limit of andpound;600 set out in the Freedom of Information (Fees for Required Disclosure) (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (the Fees Regulations). Mr Emslie asked Communities Scotland to review its decision.
Following telephone discussions with Mr Emslie, during which Communities Scotland understood Mr Emslie to have narrowed his information request, it carried out a review and, as a result, notified Mr Emslie that all material had already been supplied to Mr Emslie and there was no further releasable material.
In responding to the second set of requests, Communities Scotland also understood discussions with Mr Emslie to have narrowed the scope of his requests. It again stated that all releasable information had been supplied. This response was reiterated following an internal review. However, at this stage, Communities Scotland also claimed that Mr Emslie’s second set of requests were vexatious in terms of section 14(1) of FOISA.
Mr Emslie remained dissatisfied with Communities Scotland’s responses and applied to the Commissioner for a decision. Following an investigation, the Commissioner found that Communities
Scotland would have been entitled to refuse to comply with both sets of Mr Emslie’s information requests since they were vexatious in terms of section 14(1) of FOISA.
However, the Commissioner found that Communities Scotland had failed to respond to Mr Emslie’s two requests for review within the 20 working day timescale set out in section 21(1) of FOISA and accordingly had not dealt with the requests in accordance with Part 1 of FOISA. He did not require Communities Scotland to take any action in relation to these breaches of FOISA.
Citations:
[2008] ScotIC 074 – 2008
Links:
Scotland, Information
Updated: 08 September 2022; Ref: scu.434179