Freedom of Information (FOI)
The Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA) aims to increase openness and accountability in government and across the public sector by ensuring that people have the right to access information held by Scottish public authorities.
People can see and question how such bodies function and how decisions are made.The legislation is enforced by the Scottish Information Commissioner. The Commissioner is an independent public official and has a wide variety of powers under the Act to ensure compliance, including dealing with complaints.
The Keeper of the Registers of Scotland is one of the authorities subject to the provisions of FOISA. RoS has a culture of openness and accessibility and we welcome requests for information.
Information from the Public Registers
It should be noted that all information held by RoS in the public registers is treated as exempt under section 25 of FOISA as it is “information otherwise accessible or available on payment of a fee”. RoS is entitled to charge for this information in terms of its current Fees Order. If you require information from our registers please contact Customer Services who will be pleased to help.
How to make an FOI request
Any request for information under FOISA must be in writing and include details of the enquirer's name and the address to which the response should be sent. An enquirer can also specify the format for the response (eg email, hard copy, fax).In order for us to deal with your request as efficiently as possible it would be helpful if you also provide a telephone number so that we can contact you if we need to clarify anything.All requests for information held by RoS should be emailed to customer.services@ros.gov.uk or posted to either of our Customer Service Centre as follows:
Edinburgh Customer Service Centre
Erskine House
68 Queen Street
Edinburgh
EH2 4NF
LP 50 Edinburgh 5 / DX 550906 Edinburgh 9
Glasgow Customer Service Centre
9 George Square
Glasgow
G2 1DY
LP 12 Glasgow 5 / DX 501752 Glasgow 9
Other Information held by RoS
RoS also publishes a range of corporate information (eg minutes of meetings, information leaflets). This is available free of charge either via our website or in most cases in paper format from our Customer Services Centres.
Publication Scheme
FOISA requires RoS to maintain a Publication Scheme. This sets out the classes of information which RoS publishes or intends to publish. The Publication Scheme also includes further details about the operation of FOISA at RoS, including rules for charging and the complaints procedures.
