Freedom of Information

SCRA endeavours to comply with both the letter and the spirit of the legislation. The Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA) states that: “…any person who requests information from a Scottish public authority which holds it is entitled to be given it by the authority.”

SCRA already publishes a great deal of information and research data which may be of interest to you. Please check our Model Publication Scheme first as the information you are looking for may already be available.

If you can’t find the information you are looking for, please email us at inforequest@scra.gov.uk to make an information request. We are legally obliged to respond to you within 20 working days in one of the following ways:

• To release in full the information you have requested,
• To release the information in part, where one or more of the legal exemptions under the FOISA applies,
• To withhold the information entirely if it is covered by one or more of the legal exemptions under the FOISA,
• To tell you that we do not hold the information that you have requested.

If you are not happy with the way in which we have responded to your request, you can ask us to review the decision. We will tell you how to do this in our response.

To find out more information, please read our FOI policy.

If, after the review, you are still dissatisfied, you have the right to appeal to the Scottish Information Commissioner. For further information please visit www.itspublicknowledge.info.

To date, SCRA has received and responded to hundreds of requests for information under FOISA, including from:

• Journalists
• Local authorities
• MSPs
• Members of the public
• Academics and researchers
• Other organisations