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CAIRNGORMS NATIONAL PARK AUTHORITY 
Audit Committee Paper 9 25/08/06 

CAIRNGORMS NATIONAL PARK AUTHORITY 


FOR INFORMATION 

Title: FREEDOM OF INFORMATION 

Prepared by: ANDY RINNING, BUSINESS SERVICES MANAGER 


Purpose 

To provide the Audit Committee with an update on the current position on requests 
submitted to CNPA for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2002. 


Recommendations 

a) The Committee is asked to note the current position. 


Executive Summary 

The provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2002 came into effect in January 2005, 
providing a statutory right of access to all types of recorded information of any age held by 
Scottish public authorities. 

The process has now been in operation for some 18 months and during that period we have 
received numerous requests for information covering a broad range of topics. From the total 
number of requests received, 82 have been treated as formal requests for information under 
the terms of Freedom of Information and all were replied to within the prescribed period. 


FREEDOM OF INFORMATION - FOR INFORMATION 

Background 

1. The Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 was passed by the Scottish 
Parliament on 24 April 2002 and received Royal Assent on 28 May 2002. The Act, 
which came fully into force in January 2005, provides a statutory right of access to all 
types of recorded information of any age held by Scottish public authorities, subject 
to certain exemptions listed in the Act. 

2. The Act specifically requires Scottish public authorities (including the Cairngorms 
National Park Authority) to adopt and maintain a Publication Scheme. Each 
Publication Scheme must set out the classes of information contained within the 
relevant public authority’s Publication Scheme, the manner in which such 
information is intended to be published and whether or not a charge will be made for 
the supply of such information. The CNPA Publication Scheme was submitted to 
and approved by the Scottish Information Officer on 5 October 2004 and is available 
on the CNPA web site. The Scheme will be subject to formal review by the Scottish 
Information Commissioner in July 2008. 

3. As from 1 January 2005, the general entitlement to information under section 1 of the 
Act allowed any member of the public to make a request for information that is not 
covered by such a Publication Scheme. 


Requests 

4. All requests for information received by CNPA are treated as requests under 
Freedom of Information for the purposes of responding within the prescribed period. 
It was acknowledged that there would be many requests for information of a general 
nature but it was considered important to evaluate, over a period of time, the types 
of requests received. 

5. The process for dealing with requests has been documented internally and a member 
of staff has been given responsibility for recording and monitoring progress to 
ensure replies are issued within the prescribed period. 

6. Freedom of Information – 18 months on and we have treated 82 requests as formal 
requests for information under FoI. These have either been specifically requested 
under the terms of FoI or where there has been no reference to FoI, have been 
regarded as of significant relevance to be classed as requests within the terms of FoI. 
There is no requirement to make reference to FoI when seeking information. 

7. All requests for information received have been replied to within the prescribed 
period. 


Recommendation 

8. The Committee are asked to note the current position. 


Andy Rinning 
14 August 2006 
andyrinning@cairngorms.co.uk