On 29 January 2025, as The Sovereign Nation of Shetland, we wrote:
Dear Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service,
Please provide specific information showing proof that Shetland is part of Scotland.
In case you have a problem with our name, please consider the following:
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: https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/foi...
"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."
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: Informationrequeststhenameoftherequesterorapplicant.pdf (itspublicknowledge.info):
"9. All requests must name the person making the request. (Again, remember that a "person" may be a company or organisation.)" 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"; 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." 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"
As a matter of interest, The UK and Scottish governments made a similar objection to the name, but then withdrew their objection.
The information we have given you has also been acceptable to the DVLA, Crown Estates Scotland and the Electoral Commission when they initially refused a request under this name. All reversed their decision.
Kindly provide the information as requested by The Sovereign Nation of Shetland.
Yours faithfully,
The Sovereign Nation of Shetland
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On 14 February 2025 they responded:
Dear The Sovereign Nation of Shetland
Please see attached response.
Kind Regards
Tara McNamara
Information and Correspondence Manager
Information Governance and Correspondence Unit
Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service Headquarters
They do not hold the information and must face the next request. This request is now closed.
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