Role of the Commissioner
The Commissioner is responsible for enforcing and promoting the right to access information held by public authorities, created by the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA) and the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004, both of which came into force on 1 January 2005. The Act and the Regulations give anyone, anywhere in the world, important rights to access the information held by more than 10,000 public authorities in Scotland.
The Act and the Regulations give the Commissioner a range of powers to support the fulfilment of that role. For example, the Commissioner can order a public authority to release information which it has refused to disclose. You can view more information on the Commissioner's functions in Part 3 of FOISA.
Strategic and Operational Plan
The Commissioner's Strategic Plan for 2012-2016 provides six strategic themes which drive the annual operational plans. This, and the Operational Plans are available to view on the Strategic and Operational plans page.