FOI Request


Here's my latest FOI request to South Lanarkshire Council.

Having made such a mess of its appeal to the UK Supreme Court - I think the Council has a duty to explain what kind of advice, from senior officials and legal officers, this reckless decision was based upon.

I have no idea whether the people providing this advice to the Council are still in their jobs, but after wasting £200,000 of public money - they certainly have a lot of explaining to do, that's for sure. 

And now that the issue has been finally decided in the UK Supreme Court, the  Council has no good reason for trying to withhold this information - except to hide its obvious embarrassment, of course.

20 August 2013
Lyndsay Freeland
Chief Executive
South Lanarkshire Council
  
BY E-MAIL
Dear Mr Freeland

FOISA Request 

I would like to make the following request under the Freedom of Information Scotland Act 2002.

1 I am asking for a copy of the legal advice obtained by South Lanarkshire Council's on which the Council based its appeal to the UK Supreme Court.

2 I am also asking for details of the advice offered by senior Council officials on this subject including details of the Risk Assessment drawn up by senior Councils officials on the wisdom, or otherwise, of pursuing this matter to the UK Supreme Court.

I am copying this request to the Leader of South Lanarkshire Council - Cllr Eddie McAvoy - because the Leader of Councillor McAvoy's own party, Johann Lamont (the Scottish Labour Leader), takes a keen interest in FOI matters, as can be seen in the following extract from First Minister's Questions on 20 September 2012, which is reproduced via the BBC's Democracy Live web site:     

"Ms Lamont said the first minister 'can't be straight with or have respect for the Scottish people' as he refused to reveal what legal advice he had. She asked why he was spending hundreds of thousands of pounds of Scottish people's money to stop the people of Scotland finding out what he was doing."

So I hope South Lanarkshire Council will take the same view about the need for openness and transparency in these matters because to do otherwise would suggest that the Scottish Labour Party operates to completely different standards of behaviour - when it comes to local and national government.

I look forward to your reply and would be grateful if you could respond to me by e-mail to: markirvine@compuserve.com
    
Kind regards



Mark Irvine

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