Freedom of Information

Changes to the Freedom of Information (Scotland) 2002 during COVID-19

Last week the Scottish Parliament passed the Coronavirus (Scotland) Act 2020. It makes a number of temporary amendments to the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA).

The new Act comes into effect on Tuesday 7 April 2020. The key changes it makes to the FOISA are as follows

• The maximum timescales within which public authorities must respond to requests for information will be extended from 20 to 60 working days,
• The maximum timescales within which public authorities must respond to reviews of responses will be extended from 20 to 60 working days,

NHS Golden Jubilee will still aim to respond promptly to requests we receive, however, consideration must be given during these extremely unprecedented times.

Can we please encourage the use of email as the main communication method. The restrictions we are currently operating under may mean that any letters received by the post may not be picked up or acknowledged.

Please use the following email address’s depending on the type of request being sent:

For Freedom of Information requests – FOI@gjnh.scot.nhs.uk

For Data Protection requests – ig@gjnh.scot.nhs.uk

Please do not send multiple emails if you do not receive a reply in a timely fashion as this will create repetition and increase the workload on our teams.

Thank you once again for your patience and your support.

 

The Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 introduced important new laws about our obligations to make information publicly available.

The Act gives people new rights to access information. Most of these rights came into effect from 1 January 2005.

To submit a Freedom of Information request, you can:

• email your request to: FOI@gjnh.scot.nhs.uk
• write to:
  Information Governance Manager
  NHS Golden Jubilee 
  Golden Jubilee National Hospital
  Agamemnon Street
  Clydebank
  G81 4DY

Find out about our Publication Scheme and Guide to Information – insert link to page For further information about Freedom of Information at NHS Golden Jubilee, contact our Information Governance Manager on 0141 951 5765 or email FOI@gjnh.scot.nhs.uk