WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT FREEDOM ON INFORMATION

By The College
Contact the author by e-mail at christopher.johnstone@ntlworld.com

The Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 comes into force on 1 January 2005 and enables any person requesting information from a public body to receive that information, subject to certain exemptions. The intention is that the Act will encourage public authorities (which includes GP practices, by the way) to be more open and accountable and to organise their information in an efficient and accessible way.

The Act applies to all Scottish public authorities including the Scottish Executive and its agencies: the Scottish Parliament, local authorities, NHS Scotland, universities and further education colleagues and the police. The NHS includes health boards, local health councils, NHS24, trusts, the Common Services Agency and providers of general medical, general dental, general ophthalmology and pharmaceutical services.

What does this mean for practices?
Under the Act, all public authorities are required to adopt and maintain a Publication Scheme in which they list the types of information which they make available as a matter of course to the public and the how the information is to be made available. The scheme should also state whether the material is intended to be made available free of charge or for a fee.

Publication schedules for NHS authorities need to be submitted for approval by the Scottish Information Commissioner by 31 May 2004.

It is hoped that having publication schedules will significantly reducing the administrative burden of dealing with freedom of information requests, although the prospect of preparing these schedules, at a time when practices are busy preparing themselves for the new GMS contract, can be daunting. Fortunately, help is at hand.

What’s being done?
RCGP Scotland has been in touch with the Scottish Executive and Scottish General Practitioners Committee of the BMA (SGPC) to find out if any help is available and can report the following progress. ,p> SGPC are currently working to tartanise a model publication scheme that GPC has already prepared for GPs in England, which provides the bulk of the information required to meet the requirements of the Act. The English document is available on the UK Information Commissioner’s web site.

SGPC will liaise with the Scottish Executive and submit the Scottish model publication scheme on behalf of practices in Scotland to the Scottish Information Commissioner by 31 May 2004 for approval. (Practices that chose to do so, can submit their own model schemes, which should also be with the Commissioner for approval by the end of May).

Once approved, practices will be expected to fill in the blanks and to make the completed scheme available to the public. Further information is expected from the Scottish Information Commissioner in due course, plus a letter from the Scottish Executive confirming what action practices need to take, and by when.

Until the Act is “live” the impact on practice staff is unknown, but it is worthwhile alerting practice staff to the requirements of the Act and ensuring that at least one member of staff is equipped to respond to requests as and when they arrive.

Further information is available from the following sources:

Scottish Information Commissioner
For further details of the Scottish Act and model publication schemes that have been submitted – www.itspublicknowledge.info .

UK Information Commissioner -
BMA Model Publication Scheme for GPs March 2003 www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk .

BMA Scotland
Copies of guidance and the model publication schedule for GPs in Scotland will be available here once approved by the Information Commissioner – www.bma.org.uk/scotland.

hoolet is the magazine of RCGP Scotland. It is supported intellectually, financially and emotionally by RCGP Scotland.

This issue maintained by Robert Hallam.