Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002
336.Paragraph 20 of schedule 1 adds Redress Scotland to the list of Scottish public authorities in schedule 1 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (“FOISA”). This means that Redress Scotland will be subject to the requirements that Act places on public bodies, including requirements to provide certain information to the public on request and to have in place a scheme for the pro-active publication of information it holds.
337.Being a public authority within the meaning of FOISA also makes Redress Scotland a “Scottish public authority” to which the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 apply.
338.In addition, as a public authority within the meaning of FOISA, Redress Scotland is a “public authority” or “public body” for the purposes of the General Data Protection Regulation by virtue of section 7 of the Data Protection Act 2018 (subject to the Secretary of State not making regulations under that section to remove its “public authority” status). The General Data Protection Regulation (also commonly referred to by the acronym “GDPR”) is Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data. There are particular rules applied to bodies classified as “public authorities” (over and above those applied to all data processors) in the GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018. An analysis of those rules is beyond the scope of these Notes.
339.Further, being a public authority within the meaning of FOISA makes Redress Scotland subject to the duties imposed by section 44 of the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 and, as such, liable to monitoring and investigation under Part 4 of that Act.