Information Policy

This is Scottish Enterprise's Freedom of Information policy. It sets out how we will deal with requests for information under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002.

Before requesting information, you should check our publication scheme to see if the information you are looking for is already available.

Purpose

This policy sets out the approach adopted within Scottish Enterprise (SE) to comply with the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002.

Scope

This is a Scottish Enterprise Policy, which along with the associated procedure, documented in the Scottish Enterprise Enquiry and Information Request Handling Process, applies to all SE staff. Compliance is mandatory.

Definitions

Freedom of Information (FOI) Request

A request for information which is in writing or another form which, by reason of its having some permanency, is capable of being used for subsequent reference, states the name of the applicant and an address for correspondence and describes the information requested.

Publication Scheme

A scheme approved by the Scottish Information Commissioner which specifies the classes of information which a Scottish Public Authority publishes or intends to publish, the manner in which information in each class is published and whether it is available to the public free of charge or on payment.

Exemption

One of the grounds for withholding information permitted by the Act.

Excessive Cost of Compliance

Where the cost of complying with the request would exceed an amount prescribed in regulations made by the Scottish Ministers (currently £600).

Publish

To make publicly available – on the internet and/or in hard copy.

Public Interest Test

The process of considering the public interest in making available information which might otherwise be exempt.

Roles

The Central Freedom of Information Team, consisting of the Risk and Freedom of Information Manager and the SE Secretary are responsible for the organisation's Freedom of Information policy and procedures. They are responsible for approving any decision to withhold information in response to a Freedom of Information Request on grounds of one or more of the exemptions to the Act.

Each business unit has a local Freedom of Information Champion, who is responsible for promoting awareness of FOI within the business unit, handling straightforward queries from colleagues on FOI matters and referring more complex queries to the central team. The Champion is responsible for approving any decision to refuse a request or limit the information provided on the grounds of excessive cost.

Each business unit also has a local Request Co-ordinator who is responsible for ensuring that FOI requests received by the business unit are processed promptly and in accordance with the standard network processes.

Responsibility for retrieving the information relevant to an FOI request and ensuring that it is accurate, up to date and fully addresses the terms of the request rests with the business owners of the information. Where there is no sensitivity about releasing the information the request will be handled locally. Each business unit needs to define who is authorised to approve the issue of a response.

Each class of information in the Scottish Enterprise Publication Scheme is allocated to an information owner, who is responsible for ensuring that the information is actually published.

The Scottish Enterprise Helpline is the nominated first point of contact for formal FOI requests and also for people seeking hard copy or e-mail copies of information in the publication scheme. However in practice requests may be received in any part of the organisation, and all staff need to be able to recognise an FOI request and ensure it is handled according to the standard process.

Policy Statement

General

Scottish Enterprise will comply with the spirit as well as the letter of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act. To this end we have put in place a standard enquiry and information request handling process based on the principle of openness. This process is set out in the document Scottish Enterprise Enquiry and Information Request Handling Process, and includes mandatory steps which will ensure that the legal requirements are met in the case of requests covered by the Act.

At the same time we wish to maintain the trust of our customers, and will ensure that in all cases where information relating to third parties is the subject of a request, we will consider whether it is appropriate to use the commercial interests or personal information exemptions, and will consult the third parties as appropriate to enable us to make this decision.

Decisions on the use of exemptions, including consideration of the public interest test, will be reached through tripartite discussion between the business owner, the local champion and the central team.

Charging

The network will not charge for fulfilling requests for information which is not in a publication scheme, but reserves the right to invoke the provisions relating to excessive cost of compliance.

Refusal on the Grounds of Excessive Costs

When a request is received where we estimate that it will cost over £600 to retrieve and supply the information, we will, wherever possible, attempt to narrow the scope of the request and provide what we can within the threshold rather than refusing it outright.

Requests for Environmental Information

Access to environmental information is governed by separate regulations, known as the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs). We will only treat such requests differently when the regulations require us to do so. These circumstances are:

  • The need to include oral requests for environmental information in the formal process
  • The application of the exemptions/exceptions which are different in FOISA and EIRs
  • The handling of complex or voluminous requests, as there is no cost ceiling under EIRs

The Central FOI team will be involved in considering all requests for environmental information which are sensitive, complex or voluminous.

Retrieval of Deleted Electronic Information

The Scottish Information Commissioner has ruled that information will not be deemed to be “held” by a public authority if it has been deleted from an IT system and can only be retrieved by an IT specialist. Within Scottish Enterprise retrieval of such documents (other than any sent to a waste or recycle bin which has not been emptied) can only be done through a complete system restore. Our policy is that restores will not be carried out to retrieve information in response to an FOI request.

You can download and print our Freedom of Information Policy:

PDF document Scottish Enterprise Freedom of Information Policy (PDF, 97kb)

If you would like this information in another format, contact us.