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11. For the reasons described below, in practical terms the proposed amendment to FOISA may affect relatively few requests for information.
- A small proportion of the records created by a public authority are retained in the long-term. Most records are produced in the course of routine administrative operations and are destroyed at regular intervals. The Scottish Government, for example, preserves just 1-2% of its records at the National Archives of Scotland.
- Most requests for information which are made under FOISA are, in our experience, for records which were created in recent years. People are naturally most concerned with current issues. This is borne out by the Scottish Information Commissioner's experience, who has rarely had to consider an appeal case concerning historical information.
- We suspect that even where requests are made for older information, for example after 20 years, an authority may choose not to apply exemptions.
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