Commissioner's Biography
Profile - Kevin Dunion, OBE , MA , MSc, FRSA
Kevin Dunion was appointed as the first Scottish Information Commissioner in 2003 by HM The Queen, on the nomination of the Scottish Parliament. His second and final term as Commissioner comes to an end in February 2012.
Since Scotland's FOI laws came fully into force in January 2005, Kevin has dealt with more than 3,000 appeals and issued almost 1,400 formal decisions. Some of these have been particularly high profile such as ordering the release of: surgical mortality rates for every surgeon in Scotland; individual expenses of members of the Scottish Parliament; and the full contents of a £2.1 billion hospital contract with a private company.
Kevin is Co-Director of the Centre for FOI in Scotland, a joint initiative with Dundee University's School of Law. He is consulted internationally on the effective implementation of FOI laws, and his major new handbook Freedom of Information in Scotland in Practice will be published by Dundee University Press on 27 October 2011.
Prior to his appointment, Kevin was Chief Executive of Friends of the Earth Scotland. From 1996 to 2000 he was Chairman of Friends of the Earth International, heading delegations to the United Nations and European Commission. It was for this role that he was awarded an OBE in 2000. Kevin served as Rector of the University of St Andrews from 2008 to 2011.