The Scottish Police Federation (SPF) is currently not required to comply with The Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002, whereas the Police Federation of England and Wales is required to comply with the Freedom of Information Act 2000. All UK police forces, except Police Scotland are also required to comply with the Act.
In my opinion, the foregoing is an anomaly, given the situation in England and Wales and I would suggest that making the SPF compliant with The Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 would assist every member of the SPF, every one of the 17,000 police officers in Scotland as well as members of the public who come into contact with the police and who are interested in openness and transparency. The SPF hold large amounts of information about police officers including financial and medical information, as well as details about criminal and misconduct allegations made against officers.
As a result of their position in representing police officers who are subject to investigation, the SPF also receive and retain information about members of the public. Neither SPF members, police officers, nor members of the public are able to access this information. The SPF also hold large amounts of information about police officers’ pay, pensions, welfare and how SPF subscriptions are spent and used among other matters which can be accessed by other Federation members, police officers and members of the public, elsewhere in the UK, but not in Scotland.
The current anomaly in my opinion is a bar to any SPF member, police officer, member of the public or other interested party to gain access to information which is readily available to interested parties in other parts of the UK.
If Scotland prides itself on openness and transparency then a body which represents many people and holds information on many more should not be allowed to be excluded from this legislation when equivalent bodies in other parts of the UK are not excluded from the equivalent legislation, i.e. The Freedom of Information Act 2000.
The Freedom of Information Act 2000 is specific to England and Wales and is therefore not applicable in Scotland. In my opinion, common sense dictates that the same standard should apply across the UK and accordingly this petition is calling for the SPF to be required to comply with the equivalent legislation in Scotland.