Publish diaries for transparency

It’s interesting to note that 442 of the 514 consultation responses came through the Unlock Democracy website and just 72 were sent to Neil Findlay’s office. While many of these responses will have come from individuals, it is clear that membership organisations from both the third and private sectors are opposed to the Bill because they have real concerns that it will lead to more bureaucracy and be a waste of time that does nothing to improve transparency.

Both the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO) with over 1,300 member organisations and the Federation of Small Businesses which has nearly 20,000 member organisations are opposed to the Bill. The STUC are not in favour either.

I do find puzzling the fact that Neil Findlay thinks SCVO’s opposition to the Bill is a barrier to its success. This maybe only highlights the “influence” – not undue I hasten to add – and standing he considers SCVO to have and the fact that it is well known that SCVO strongly supports the pursuit of a more transparent and accountable Scottish Government and Parliament, and local government as well.

That’s why we broadly support the amendments to the FOI Bill, but if we want much more transparency we have to get this right and this proposed Bill with its simplistic register isn’t the way to go. It says nothing about transparency in local government, where many of the biggest decisions affecting people and communities are made.

The proposed Bill is pushing responsibility for the lack of trust in politicians and the political system on to the wrong people. Instead the onus to build trust should be on the politicians and a simple first step to achieve that would be to publish the diaries of Cabinet secretaries, ministers, MSPs and senior civil servants.

John Downie, Director of Public Affairs, Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations, Edinburgh