Responding to Speaking Engagement Requests
The Scottish Information Commissioner is responsible for promoting and enforcing the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002. The Commissioner and his staff receive many invitations to make presentations at a wide range of events. We would, ideally, like to be able to participate in all of the events to which we’re invited, but sometimes we have to decline. This can be due to other pre-existing commitments or our caseload, but we also have to make a decision about the best use of our organisation’s resources. This note explains how we prioritise our involvement.
Public Events
We aim to make the best use of our resources to promote the Act to the public. Our public promotion strategy sets out our intention to raise the awareness of the general public and, in particular, people from disadvantaged groups, of their new right to information.
We also plan to target our approach to ensure particular groups are well informed about the Act. These groups include: media, community councils and trade unions.
We particularly welcome invitations to speak at events involving members of community and voluntary organisations, especially where there are large numbers of attendees or many organisations present. We are prepared to meet our own travel costs and to attend events outside office hours.
Invitations from Public Authorities
The Act covers some 10,000 Scottish public authorities, including central and local government, the police, health and education service providers. Some of these organisations are very large, others may be staffed by a very small number of people. Some of the organisations have representative bodies, or meet with similar public authorities through a forum or network, others don’t.
When considering invitations from public authorities we aim to reach as wide an audience as possible. This often means that we will prioritise involvement in events involving several public authorities. We do, however, try to respond to requests equitably across all sectors and areas of interest.
We also actively seek opportunities to participate in events that will explore some new aspect or issue concerning the Act. These occasions offer us the opportunity to discuss ideas and views with public authority representatives and thus inform our own thinking.
In the year prior to implementation of the Act and the Regulations, we organised local seminars for public authorities and also participated in 2 major national conferences run by Holyrood Communications.
Invitations from Commercial Organisations
Many commercial organisations e.g., law firms, human resource consultants and records management specialists are providing important services to public authorities preparing for the Act coming into force. We apply the same principles to requests for speakers from these organisations as we do to public authorities.