What's the Big Secret?
Scotland's 32 local councils are all affiliated to COSLA - the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities.
The Convention is funded by its 32 member councils via a member council levy - which all the councils pay with public money, of course.
Now here comes the interesting bit.
All 32 Scottish councils are covered by the Freedom of Information Scotland Act (FOISA) 2002 - as you would expect - because they are spending our money.
But COSLA is not covered by FOISA - even though just about everything that COSLA does is paid for out of public funds.
How crazy is that?
No wonder the Scottish Information Commissioner has been calling recently for many more public bodies - to come under the scope of the FOI legislation.
Including the arm's length trusts that some councils have set up - at the moment these organisations are not covered by the FOI regime - although there is nothing to stop them signing up to its provisions on a voluntary basis.
The Convention is funded by its 32 member councils via a member council levy - which all the councils pay with public money, of course.
Now here comes the interesting bit.
All 32 Scottish councils are covered by the Freedom of Information Scotland Act (FOISA) 2002 - as you would expect - because they are spending our money.
But COSLA is not covered by FOISA - even though just about everything that COSLA does is paid for out of public funds.
How crazy is that?
No wonder the Scottish Information Commissioner has been calling recently for many more public bodies - to come under the scope of the FOI legislation.
Including the arm's length trusts that some councils have set up - at the moment these organisations are not covered by the FOI regime - although there is nothing to stop them signing up to its provisions on a voluntary basis.
Watch this space - more to follow.
