Citizens embrace their right to know

THE Freedom of Information Act is arguably one of the most successful pieces of legislation passed by the Scottish Parliament. Consider the evidence: 73 per cent of the Scottish public say they have heard of their new right to know. Thousands of requests for information have been made to Scotland's public authorities - the majority by ordinary citizens. In the vast majority of cases, Scotland's public authorities are providing such information free of charge, within 20 working days.

One of the successes of the legislation is that we have quickly moved from an official culture that still questioned the need to know to one of compliance with a right-to-know regime.

Within that broad picture, there are instances where informati...