More Scottish info privacy news

While we're making Scotocentric comments on HBOS meltdown day, another snippet, slightly late, from OUT-LAW on 12/9/08:

The Scottish Government has asked a panel of experts to produce rules for public bodies to follow so that personal information and privacy is better protected. The move follows a series of UK-wide data breaches involving public authorities.

The panel will produce guidance for public bodies to ensure that they are treating personal information properly. That guidance will be subject to public consultation before any adoption by the Scottish Government.

The group of experts includes representatives from the public and private sectors and includes Rosemary Jay, a privacy law expert at Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind OUT-LAW.COM.

The group also includes Gus Hosein of Privacy International, Scottish Government director of corporate services Paul Gray, assistant information commissioner for Scotland Ken Macdonald, Edinburgh University honorary fellow Charles Raab and Jerry Fishenden, Microsoft's lead technology advisor for the UK.""

Pangloss notes with approval this list of luminaries but feels slightly sad they didn't ask her, just when she's (sort of) moved back to Edinburgh. Ah, hubris!

For Auld Lang Syne

In a fit of nostalgia, Pangloss feels like posting that the 3rd Scottish Information Commissioner Report has been published (even though Pangloss now does not live in Scotland and tries to avoid FOI like the plague.)

Still, it does seem kinda remarkable though that:

"1082 appeals [have been] received in the two years since the inception of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act (including 511 appeals in 2006) – twice as many applications as the Information Commissioner in England and Wales.

By the end of 2006 the Scottish Information Commissioner had completed 781 cases, with 326 decisions covering 350 separate applications. 328 applications were closed without investigation and 103 settled or withdrawn."

Twice as many as in England? Which has 10 times the population? What? Are Scots just naturally nosy? :-) What am I missing?

Also

"65 per cent of appeals came from ordinary members of the public
• 236 decision notices issued by the Commissioner
• The Court of Session has upheld the Commissioner’s decisions in all four of the appeals it has considered so far"

- which is a pretty good showing too.