The Scottish Parliament Feb. 1 has approved Rosemary Agnew as the next Scottish Information Commissioner.
If approved by the Queen, a final formality, she will assume the job in April for a six-year term. Agnew succeeds Kevin Dunion, who retires later this month.
Agnew has been the Chief Executive of the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission, which receives citizen complaints.
The Campaign for Freedom of Information in Scotland welcomed the action, but cautioned “that the pressure for extending and promoting the legislation must be kept up, and stepped up.”
“The Campaign has been critical of the Scottish Government’s withdrawal of proposals to extend Freedom of Information to cover private sector, arms-length bodies and trusts set up by public bodies to deliver public services. The Scottish Information Commissioner has also indicated that he supported such an extension, as he was concerned that outsourcing public services was leading to the loss of people’s information rights,” the Campaign said in a statement.”
One critical website, Solicitors from Hell 2, reported that Dunion “on at least FIVE OCCASIONS for failures in handling FOI disclosures, one of which included the withholding of sensitive compensation payments data during the period Ms Agnew was actually being interviewed for the post of FOI Commissioner by Scottish Parliament officials.”
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