Willie McRae Investigations

[originally posted 15 August 2015] A few days ago, in Part 34 , I considered the possibility that public bodies might, in their handling of FOI requests, commit a criminal offence by deliberately not releasing all the relevant information to which the applicant is entitled. I have come across an example so apparently blatant a breach of the law that I am incredulous that no offence was committed. How can this be? Let me backtrack to my last post, In Part 33  I wrote about Paul Delamore’s victory in having the Scottish Information Commissioner decide that Police Scotland should release the information he had requested. My analysis was incomplete.  I had ignored a key part of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 – FOISA.  I hadn’t even read the relevant section.  I must also say that I didn’t recognise my omission: a friend had to point this out to me. The crucial part is Section 65 Basically this says that if an applicant is not given all the informat...