Information chief fears public has ‘less access’

Access to information about public services has been weakened in Scotland over the past ten years, the outgoing Information Commissioner has said.

Kevin Dunion, who will step down from his post next month, said people were now less able to access data than when Freedom of Information legislation came into force in 2002.

In an interview with Scotland on Sunday, Mr Dunion said: “We’re losing existing rights where local authorities are out-sourcing, not only to private companies, but to trusts they have set up.

“People lose rights to information about the functions of these trusts.” He called for the powers of his successor to be beefed up – including scrapping the rule that investigations into authorities destroying information needs to take place within six months.