Why is the Charity Regulator talking about freedom of information?

Freedom of information (FOI) has been around in Scotland since 2002. It’s an important tool for holding public bodies (like OSCR) to account. It can also be a key resource of information for the charity sector, see the Scottish Information Commissioner’s Resources for the Voluntary Sector to find out more.

But why is OSCR talking about it?

There’s a Scottish Government consultation that runs until 3 December 2019 about extending the coverage of FOI to organisations providing services on behalf of a Scottish public authority. This could include many charities that contract with public bodies to provide services. 

The purpose of the consultation is to help Scottish Government identify who might be caught by the extension and understand how it could impact those organisations.

Scottish Government will use the responses to the consultation to help inform what changes should be made to FOI.

We want to make sure that charities who might be impacted know about the consultation and have a chance to respond to Scottish Government.

This consultation is the start of the engagement with the charity sector. If you think it could impact your charity, we would encourage you to respond or feed into a response by one of the sector representatives like SCVO or your local Third Sector Interface.