Statement from the Scottish Information Commissioner regarding the publication of the contract between the Scottish Prison Service and Reliance Secure Task Management Ltd
20 May 2004.
The Scottish Information Commissioner has today (20 May 2004) been informed by the Justice Minister that the contract between the Scottish Prison Service and Reliance Secure Task management Ltd. has been published on the Scottish Prisons Service website. We welcome the publication.
We note that publication has been made under the terms of the Code of Practice on Access to Scottish Executive Information. The Scottish Prison Service adds that it is also consistent with the principles of freedom of information.
The Scottish Prison Service indicates on its website that ‘The contract has been published with the exclusion of items deemed to be commercially or operationally sensitive.’
The Code of Practice provides a number of exemptions which may have been applied to warrant the exclusions.
Consistent with the Code, and the provisions of the Freedom of Information (Scotland ) Act 2002 which will apply to such information from 1 January 2005, the Scottish Information Commissioner would normally expect that where information has been withheld that the specific reasons for doing so in terms of the exemptions applied to each exclusion would be stated.
The Commissioner will be discussing with the Scottish Prison Service approaches to applying the terms of the Code of Practice and the principles of freedom of information.