Are information requests made to councillors valid under FOISA?
No. Councillors are not ‘Scottish public authorities’ under FOISA, so an information request made to a councillor is not valid. However, it is possible that members of the public will not make this distinction and will make a request for information held by a council to a councillor instead of to a council. As a result, the Commissioner expects councils to put arrangements in place with councillors so that any requests councillors receive for information held by the council are passed to the council to be dealt with. As these requests are made to a councillor and not to the council itself, the council does not have a duty to respond to the request under FOISA. However, councils have a duty to advise and assist people making information requests under section 15 of FOISA. Depending on the request, this duty can either be fulfilled by making the information available informally or by asking the requester to make a new, valid information request direct to the council.
