Council Charges
A regular reader has been in touch over information requests to North Lanarkshire Council about employee pay records.
Apparently some folk asked for the information as a Freedom of Information (FoI) request which for some reason the Council chose to regard as a request for personal information under the Data Protection Act (DPA).
"Can the Council charge for providing the information?" is the reader's question.
Now technically, I think it can under the DPA which is odd because the Council cannot demand a fee for answering a request under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002.
But if you ask me, it is completely outrageous for any council to charge a fee in these circumstances, especially if all that people are asking for is their own personal data.
So if I were treated in this way, I would definitely complain and I would also take the case up my local councillor, MSP and even the local newspaper - because it's no way to behave.