NLC Update (22/07/15)



The Scottish Information Commissioner has already been back in touch to say that SIC have noted my concerns about the FOI practice of North Lanarkshire Council which I wrote about yesterday on the blog site - see NLC Update (21/07/15).

The advice from SIC is that if I am dissatisfied at the way in which NLC deals with any future FOI requests (should there be any), then I should let SIC know.

If I decide to make a formal complaint against NLC which I resisted this time round, of course, I can apparently submit an application to SIC which would then trigger a formal investigation.

Now that's the reason we have independent watchdogs, if you ask me: to prevent big bureaucracies from throwing their weight around, and to level the playing field between the 'big guy' and the 'little guy'.

And if you ask me, an independent watchdog for trade unions would be a big step forward as well, because an independent referee would put the unions on the same footing as other professions and other areas of public life.

The result would be that complaints from individual members, or groups of members, would have to be taken much more seriously - instead of being kicked into the long grass, never to return.     

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