Model Publication Scheme Monitoring 2017

Freedom of information (FOI) law requires public authorities to publish information about their work under categories specified by the Scottish Information Commissioner - this is their publication scheme duty.

At the end of 2016 this office commissioned Craigforth, a social research company, to carry out a "mystery shopping" exercise with 70 public authorities covered by FOI.

The research assessed the following:

Accessibility of each public authority's Guide to Information (GTI)
Accessibility of specific categories of information (decision making, open data and re-use of information (if an authority was covered))
Follow-up contact assessed the public authority's provision of advice and assistance

The researchers found that, while 94% of public bodies had an online Guide to Information to help access published information:

91% of public authorities provided one or more types of information relating to decision making (minutes of meetings, agendas, strategies and plans) online but only 54% provided all three.
79% are not publishing open data through their GTIs (a new class in May 2016 to support the Scottish Government's Open Data Strategy)
Of those subject to the Re-use of Public Sector Information Regulations 2015 very few made specific reference to the regulations, with only a small number of them referring to having a policy.

Full report and data

Model Publication Scheme Monitoring 2017 Report (PDF)

Model Publication Scheme Monitoring 2017 - Raw Data (Excel)