Don’t make FOI officers dig through your cat memes to get to the information related to the FOI request.
Speaking at Holyrood’s Freedom of Information 2024 event at Verity House in Edinburgh, Scottish Information Commissioner David Hamilton told delegates: “If someone has information that relates to a public authority, that is public information. If it’s on their phone, that’s up to them.
“Often times it’s mixed up with gifs of cats and all the other personal stuff people have on social media. We need to read this stuff, and frankly sometimes it’s awful.
“It’s an awful mix and it shouldn’t happen.”
He added: “The reason people don’t have these conversations on email is because it’s FOI-able. So are WhatsApp and Teams messages.
The stories dug out from between the gifs this week…
Temporary homes
The Scottish Government has been accused of presiding over “disgraceful” waits in temporary housing after new figures were revealed.
Freedom of Information data showed one person in Argyll and Bute has spent 13 years in temporary digs in Edinburgh.
One child in Edinburgh has waited seven years whilst a child in Fife has been waiting for a permanent home for over four years.
Long waits
A “staggering” 100 referrals are being made on average every day to Scotland’s Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS), a charity has found.
Freedom of Information data obtained by Children First showed there were 36,659 referrals in 2023/24, with an acceptance rate of 74%.
The acceptance rate has decreased from 78% in 2019/20, though median wait times have come down from 12 to eight weeks over the same period.
The waiting times target is for 90% of children and young people to be seen within 18 weeks of referral, but this has never been met since its introduction in 2014.
Nicked packages
Organised gangs are cashing in on a boom in internet shopping to pinch deliveries left by couriers. Many are targeting communal areas in blocks of flats to steal. The warning comes ahead of Black Friday and the run-up to Christmas, which is likely to prove rich pickings for crooks.
Technology company Quadient, which submitted of Freedom of Information requests to police forces, found the average value of stolen parcels shot up by 52% in the last 12 months, from £66.50 in 2023, to £102 this year. The total value of goods taken reached £376.6million. The FOI data shows people in blocks of flats are 24% more likely to be victims of parcel theft than those living in a house, suggesting thieves are capitalising on opportunities to steal multiple parcels in one go from communal areas.
Image by Pavel Danilyuk on Pexels
