Information commissioner calls for FOI extension to cover private schools

Scottish government plans to extend freedom of information (FOI) laws should cover private schools according to Scotland’s information commissioner.

Speaking to The Scotsman, Rosemary Agnew said sections of the private school sector should be considered under proposals to extend the legislation to other bodies providing public services.

But critics have attacked the proposal as “intrusive” and warned the government against “persecuting” private schools.

The body that represents the sector argued there was “no need” to compel fee-paying institutions to be part of the FOI regime.

Ms Agnew said there is a case for doing so because they deliver public services but that this would unlikely cover schools’ finances as the public interest case for doing so is weak.

Areas that could be subject to FOI rules, according to the information commissioner, are the curriculum, subjects taught, sections of school governance and child welfare.

Such a move would allow the public to make FOI requests of the schools to provide information within 20 days so long as the information is not exempted.

Ms Agnew said: “What should be a public matter is an important question and is about more than just money and anything that receives public funding.

“There’s a question of how wide it should go.

“One thing that drives it is to what extent it delivers something that the law says it should do in a particular way.”

She added: “When we get down to detail if a school is wholly funded by parents that’s one thing, but there is still a requirement to comply with laws relating to children.

“The starting point is to look at what they do that is covered by statutory duties. It may well be that certain duties could be discussed for this. That should all be part of the debate.”

But a spokesman from the Scottish Council of Independent Schools(SCIS) said that, as a consequence of being charities, private schools already make disclosures relating to governance and spending.

He said: “There would certainly be no justification for an extension of FOI to the mainstream fee-paying sector and, more importantly, no need.

“Any communication with government, inspectorates, regulators and the like is already subject to the FOI provisions of those bodies, subject to the usual conditions of child protection and commercial confidentiality.

“For the rest, independent schools are - as the name suggests - autonomous from the state’s provision of education.

“Independent schools are established as free- standing and autonomous. Most are registered charities and their accounts are available.”

Conservative MSP Alex Johnstone said: “I’d be very concerned that something like this could be used to persecute private schools.”