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Possible Defects The Campaign for Freedom of Information has highlighted many defects in the United Kingdom Freedom of Information proposals, some of which also apply in Scotland. The existence of Ministerial Vetoes has been called an "unwelcome reflection of the UK proposals" by the campaign, although all groups admit that the Veto is a much narrower provision in the Scottish legislation. While it is not entirely desirable for an open regime that the executive is able to cover its own tracks in this manner, the legislation will be less broad on this issue in Scotland, and there will not be any blanket vetoes on policy discussions. It is also highly unlikely that governments accustomed to the secrecy that exists in the UK could take the step to such a lack of privacy in policy discussions. The appeals procedure when information has been withheld is a reasonable one. The Scottish Information Commissioner will have considerable power to force the release of information which has been withheld, and even some of those areas which are ordinarily exempt can be released. Yet there is no further court of appeal. In earlier (1993) proposals, a tribunal was mooted as a further court of appeal, and the United Kingdom Bill provides for a tribunal. But it does not give the Information Commissioner authority to order that information be disclosed. Such a tribunal is not proposed here; although the idea is mentioned in the consultation document, there is the possibility that the appeals procedure would become unwieldy were both the Commissioner and the Tribunal to have powers of forcing disclosure of information. Exemptions from the right to Freedom of Information are a contentious area. It is widely recognised that there has to be a right to privacy of the individual and of information which could threaten national security were it to be released. The primary example of this is the exemption of discussions with other governments, both within and outside the United Kingdom. It is not likely to be argued that these discussions should be released into the public domain. However, the blanket exemption of policy discussion, as mentioned above, is more controversial. We may wonder whether disclosure of policy discussion will in fact achieve the aims of open government, or will either inhibit debate or move the real discussion elsewhere. Other governments seem able to continue efficient governance without keeping all discussions secret, and this is an area on which exemptions could perhaps be more tightly drawn. The Stephen Lawrence case in London has highlighted the need for a body which has the power to demand that information be disclosed by the police. While the police forces of Scotland are covered by the Freedom of Information Act, exemptions still exist to maintain secrecy in criminal proceedings. However, the Information Commissioner will be able to order disclosure of certain documents which will not disrupt the judicial process or the security of prisons. Other areas of police work that are not covered by the exemption list are to be released as standard. The Freedom of Information Act is to be a retrospective one - with certain restrictions. This is valuable as, for the next ten years, it would be difficult to isolate a subject on which only the most recent documents were useful, and there would be serious anomalies for a regime which released a set of statistics for the years 2000-2002 but not for 1998-1999. However, for reasons partly of practicality, those records currently filed under the thirty-year rule will not become available.
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