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FREEDOM OF INFORMATION (SCOTLAND) ACT 2002
A CONSULTATION ON CHARGING FEES

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FREEDOM OF INFORMATION (SCOTLAND) ACT 2002 A CONSULTATION ON CHARGING FEES

Although charging under freedom of information will be discretionary, regulations will set out the framework with which Scottish public authorities should comply when requesting fees for supplying information under the Act. I am writing to you to ask for your comments on the draft fees regulations and on the associated guidance. Your comments will assist in the process of developing the regulations and finalising the guidance.

Responding to this consultation

We are inviting written responses on the regulations and guidance by 31 May 2004. Please send your response to:
foi@scotland.gsi.gov.uk

or to

Catherine Winn
The Scottish Executive
Freedom of Information Unit
G-A North
Victoria Quay
EDINBURGH
EH6 6QQ

If you have any queries contact Catherine on 0131-244-5210.

We would be grateful if you could clearly indicate in your response which questions or parts of the consultation paper you are responding to as this will aid our analysis of the responses received.

For future engagement:

If you wish to access this consultation online, go to http://www.scotland.gov.uk/view/views.asp . You can telephone Freephone 0800 77 1234 to find out where your nearest public internet access point is, if you prefer to submit your response by e-mail to foi@scotland.gsi.gov.uk

SEConsult (http://www.scotland.gov.uk/consultations/seconsult.aspx), a new email alert system for SE consultations, was launched in December 2003. This system will allow stakeholder individuals and organisations to register and receive a weekly email containing details of all new SE consultations (including web links). seConsult will complement, but in no way replace SE distribution lists, and is designed to allow stakeholders ‘keep an eye’ on all SE consultation activity, and therefore be alerted at the earliest opportunity to those of most interest. We encourage you to register as soon as possible.

Access to consultation responses

We will make all responses available to the public in the Scottish Executive Library by 31 June 2004 unless confidentiality is requested. All responses not marked confidential will be checked for any potentially defamatory material before being logged in the library or placed on the website.

Papers Associated with this consultation

Attached to this letter are the following documents;-

• An Information Form for you to complete together with your response. This will help ensure that we deal with your response appropriately
• A background note on the Scottish Executive Consultation Process
• The draft guidance on fees including a list of questions for you to consider,
• The draft fees regulations themselves - these are in two parts to reflect different procedures needed for approval the Scottish Parliament.

I hope that you feel able to respond to this consultation. It is intended that any comments received will be taken into account when finalising the regulations and guidance. Finalised regulations will be considered by the Scottish Parliament in the autumn with a view to them being approved in good time for the full implementation of Freedom of Information in Scotland in January 2005.

TIM ELLIS
Head of the Freedom of Information Unit

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