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The Sovereign Nation of Shetland has been refused answers to our FOI requests by various organiations, the FOI Officers of which should have been better informed. Our requests:
- are in a valid name; and
- are not repetitive, but are sequential - each being dependent on the previous one; and
- are not vexatious. It may be inconvenient for an organisation to be asked to show information which may be critical to its operations in Shetland, but that does not absolve it from the obligation to produce it; and
- are not unreasonable. It is eminently reasonable for us to ask for information proving its authority from any organisation that purports to have business in Shetland - especially if there may be some doubt; and
- the information should be readily to hand to any orgnisation operating in Shetland; and
From the Scottish Information Commissioner website:
"Requesters must not be unjustly denied the opportunity to make a genuine information request. Requests may be inconvenient, and meeting them may at times stretch an authority's resources, but these factors, on their own, are not sufficient grounds for an authority to deem a request vexatious or repeated."
The Sovereign Nation of Shetland is a group of like-minded men and women living in Shetland. It was inaugurated in 2013 and is an unincorporated association, which is a person for the purposes of FOI legislation.
The Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 states:
1. General Entitlement
(1) A person who requests information from a Scottish public authority which holds it is entitled to be given it by the authority.
8. Requests for information.
(1) In this Act any reference to a "request for information" is a reference to such a request which
(b) states the name of the applicant and an address for correspondence
The Interpretation Act 1978 states at Schedule 1:
"Person" includes a group of persons, corporate or unincorporate.
For the purposes of the 2002 Act, The Sovereign Nation of Shetland, as an unincorporated association, is a person entitled to be given the information requested.
From the ICO website:
"To be valid under the Act, the request must:
- be in writing. This could be a letter or email. Requests can also be made via the web, or even on social networking sites such as Facebook or Twitter if your public authority uses these;
- include the requester's real name. The Act treats all requesters alike, so you should not normally seek to verify the requester's identity. However, you may decide to check their identity if it is clear they are using a pseudonym or if there are legitimate grounds for refusing their request and you suspect they are trying to avoid this happening, for example because their request is vexatious or repeated. Remember that a request can be made in the name of an organisation, or by one person on behalf of another, such as a solicitor on behalf of a client." (Emphasis added).
The requester's real name is The Sovereign Nation of Shetland, and
- We note that "you should not normally seek to verify the requester's identity" and
- "Remember that a request can be made in the name of an organisation"
From FOISA/EIRs Guidance:
"7. FOI is sometimes described as "applicant blind". This does not mean that requests can be anonymous, but that who the requester is should not make a difference to how the request is handled."
"9. All requests must name the person making the request. (Again, remember that a "person" may be a company or organisation.)"; (Emphasis added). and
"14. The Commissioner expects public authorities to check the validity of a request only where there are reasonable grounds for believing that the request might not be valid. Otherwise, the Commissioner expects the authority to simply deal with the request"; (Emphasis added). and
"19. If the request has been made by a company or organisation, then a request made in the name of the company or organisation will be valid." (Emphasis added). and
"22. While it may be helpful to have a named contact for corresponding with a company or organisation in response to a request, this is not essential as the company/organisation name is sufficient for the request to be valid" (Emphasis added).
Kindly provide the information as requested by The Sovereign Nation of Shetland. Your objection will make no difference to the timescale of the request.
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