Awareness of freedom of information rights in Scotland has reached its highest recorded level, two decades after the country’s access to information regime came into force. Yet the latest findings expose a more complicated truth: people increasingly know the right exists, but many still doubt whether using it will produce a clear and timely answer.
Public awareness of freedom of information in Scotland has reached a record high, according to new research published by the Scottish Information Commissioner.
A survey of 1,057 adults found that 93 per cent of respondents had heard of freedom of information, continuing a long term rise since Scotland’s statutory right to information came into force in 2005. Support for the principle remains strong, with respondents viewing access to public information as important to openness, accountability and trust in public institutions.
But awareness has not yet translated into confidence. Eighty six per cent of respondents said they had never made an information request to a Scottish public body, while 43 per cent said they were not confident they would receive a response if they did.
That public doubt sits beside a stronger performance picture. The Commissioner’s data shows that Scottish public bodies received more than 110,000 information requests over the past year and responded to more than 86 per cent on time. Scotland’s FOI law gives people a right to request recorded information from public bodies, and the standard response time is 20 working days.
The figures suggest that freedom of information in Scotland has moved from being a specialist right known mainly to campaigners, journalists and lawyers into a broader public expectation. The challenge now is not simply whether people know the law exists. It is whether they trust public bodies enough to use it.
Freedom of information has become one of the quieter instruments of Scottish public life. It is rarely dramatic in itself. A request is made, a clock starts, a record is found or withheld, and a reply arrives. Yet behind that dry administrative process lies one of the more important democratic principles created in the first years of devolution: the public is entitled to know more about how public power is used.
The Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 came fully into force on 1 January 2005, alongside environmental information regulations. The legislation created a general right of access to recorded information held by Scottish public authorities, including the Scottish Government, councils, the NHS, police, universities and other bodies within scope.
Its logic was simple enough. Public bodies do not own public information in the same way a private citizen owns private correspondence. They hold information in the course of exercising public functions, spending public money and making decisions that affect the lives of people across Scotland. FOI was designed to make that information accessible unless a legal exemption applies.
Twenty years on, the Commissioner’s latest survey suggests that principle has been absorbed more deeply than in the early years of the Act. The survey found that 97 per cent of respondents agreed it is important for the public to be able to access information held by public bodies, while 75 per cent agreed that FOI helps to prevent bad practice. Ninety per cent said they were more likely to trust an organisation that publishes a lot of information about its work.
Those numbers matter because FOI is not only a mechanism for individual requests. It also carries a broader cultural demand: that public authorities should not wait to be forced into disclosure. The Commissioner’s findings show strong public support for proactive publication, with 93 per cent agreeing that public bodies should provide support to people who want to access public information.
David Hamilton, the Scottish Information Commissioner, said the record level of awareness showed a clear expectation that information should be made available openly and routinely. He said the focus now should be on building confidence, so people can trust that asking for information will lead to a clear and timely response.
That point is central. Rights that people do not feel able to use are rights only partly realised.
There are several possible reasons for the confidence gap. Some people may not know how to frame a request. Others may fear being ignored, delayed or overwhelmed by formal language. Some may believe that information will be withheld whatever they ask. Others may not realise that a request can be as simple as an email seeking recorded information.
The law itself does not require a person to be a lawyer, journalist or campaigner. Requests must be made in a recorded format, such as email or letter, and public authorities have a duty to help applicants where needed. If a requester is unhappy with the response, they can ask the authority to review it and then appeal to the Scottish Information Commissioner.
Yet the experience of making a request can still vary. Some authorities are prompt, clear and helpful. Others can be slower, more cautious or more inclined to rely on exemptions. The Commissioner’s performance data suggests the system is not generally broken, but public doubt can arise from uneven experience as well as formal failure.
The history of FOI in Scotland is also a history of expanding expectations. In the years after 2005, the public sector itself changed. Services once delivered directly by public bodies have increasingly been outsourced, contracted out, delivered through arm’s length bodies or provided through partnerships with private and voluntary organisations. That has produced a recurring question: should access rights follow the public function, even when the service is delivered outside the traditional public sector?
The Commissioner’s latest research shows overwhelming public support for that principle. Eighty seven per cent of respondents agreed that people should have the same rights to access information where private sector organisations deliver public services as they would if a public body were providing the service. Ninety two per cent felt there should be a regular review of which bodies are covered by FOI law.
This is not a new debate. The Scottish Information Commissioner has previously argued that extending FOISA to organisations providing public services would help restore and protect access rights where public functions are delivered beyond the core public sector. A 2022 response from the Commissioner described such extension as long overdue and said it would help Scotland keep pace with international good practice.
The Scottish Parliament has also examined reform. A proposed Freedom of Information Reform Bill consultation in 2023 included proposals to extend coverage to bodies delivering public services, create a role of FOI officer, increase proactive publication and improve enforcement.
For ordinary citizens, the issue is practical rather than constitutional. If a care service, housing function, leisure facility or other public service is delivered through a contractor or arm’s length body, people may still want to know how decisions are made, what standards are being met, and how public money is being used. The public instinct appears clear: if the function is public, accountability should not vanish behind the delivery model.
The latest research also arrives as artificial intelligence begins to touch more administrative systems. The survey found caution about the use of AI tools to support FOI requests, with 71 per cent of respondents indicating there may be a need for limits, particularly after recent examples of AI being used to support high volumes of requests.
That caution reflects a real tension. AI could help citizens draft clearer requests and understand public records. It could also generate large numbers of poorly targeted requests, increasing pressure on already stretched authorities. A right built for recorded information in an analogue bureaucracy is now operating in a world of automated systems, data driven decision making and machine generated correspondence.
The Commissioner’s findings suggest that Scotland is not facing a crisis of belief in FOI. The public supports it strongly. The difficulty is more subtle. People want transparency, but they are not all persuaded that the system will work for them personally.
That is a problem for government, councils and public authorities, but it is also an opportunity. If public bodies publish more information before being asked, explain their decisions plainly, respond on time, and treat requesters as citizens rather than irritants, confidence can rise. If they treat FOI as a burden to be managed, confidence will remain behind awareness.
There is also a lesson for Scottish journalism and civic life. FOI has helped reveal decisions, spending, correspondence, inspection records and policy thinking that would otherwise remain unseen. It is one of the few tools available equally to a reporter, a campaigner, a community group, a business owner, a parent, a patient or a curious citizen. Used well, it is not a weapon against public bodies. It is a discipline imposed upon power.
After two decades, Scotland’s freedom of information system appears widely recognised and broadly supported. That is a significant democratic achievement. But the next test is whether the system can become more usable, more trusted and more complete.
The record awareness figure is therefore not the end of the story. Scotland has taught its citizens that they have a right to know. It must now make sure they believe that asking will matter.
