Courses take place in:

Edinburgh

This training session is primarily aimed at those professionals within organisations that are required to administer requests under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002, as well as those that are likely to be required in the future to comply or have opted to comply on a voluntary basis.

The session is particularly beneficial for individuals who deal with FOI issues on a day-to-day basis or at a management level, as the sessions focuses on the practical issues in compliance, and there will be plenty of opportunity to brainstorm issues and learn from the experiences of other organisations.

The session reviews and explains key decisions from the Scottish Information Commissioner, and where relevant, the UK Information Commissioner’s Office.

Amongst the topics that are considered in this sessions are the following:

• an introduction to FOI law and practice
• an analysis of the key exemptions, and how to use the exemptions in practice
• the main challenges in implementing FOI and guidance on how to meet those challenges
• dealing with the private sector
• the latest relevant decisions of the Scottish Information Commissioner and the UK Information Commissioner, including the implications of the VisitScotland case

Delegates should leave the session feeling confident to handle FOI requests.