Scottish housing associations to be subject to FOIA from November

Sean Clerkin, co-ordinator at Scottish Tenants Organisations, told Inside Housing: “This is a major victory for us in campaigning for the extension of [the] Freedom of Information [Act] to all tenants across Scotland, and should be a clear signal to tenants elsewhere in the United Kingdom to champion their right to freedom of information from their housing associations.

“However, this achievement is tinged with disappointment, in that factored homeowners, of which there are 100,000 in Scotland, have been denied the right to freedom of information. I believe that is wrong and that these factored homeowners are being discriminated against.”

The Scottish government decided to extend the Freedom of Information Act to cover housing associations in November 2015, but the date for the change has been delayed a few times since then.

In December 2017, the government announced that this specific draft order would be published, with many expecting that it would bring the changes into force in April this year. The change, however, was again delayed and will now take effect from November.

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “We are committed to extending coverage of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 and following extensive consultation and discussion with key stakeholders.

“A draft order has been laid in parliament that will extend the coverage of the Act to registered social landlords and their subsidiaries.”

Last week, the British information commissioner said that housing associations south of the border should be made subject to the Freedom of Information Act as well.

She said that in the case of housing associations, the transparency gap is “emphatic and clear”, especially in the wake of the fire safety concerns that have arisen after the Grenfell Tower fire.

Update: at 09.09 on 11.2.19 This story was updated to include a comment from the Scottish Government.