“An Act to make provision for the disclosure of information held by public authorities or by persons providing services for them…”
Freedom of Information Act (Scotland) 2002

What is the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002?

The Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 [the Act] received Royal Assent on 28 May 2002. It will introduce a general statutory right of access to all types of 'recorded' information of any age held by Scottish public authorities. The Act can be accessed by clicking on the link in the see also panel on the right hand side of this page.

As of the 1st January 2005, any individual or organisation has the right to ask sportscotland to provide any information it has available on any specific topic. Subject to certain conditions and exemptions, as set out in the Act, any person who makes a request for information will be entitled to receive it.

Why do we have a Freedom of Information Act?

The Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 was designed to promote a culture of openness and accountability amongst public sector bodies by providing people with rights of access to the information held by them. It is intended that by granting rights to information, people will better understand how public authorities carry out their duties, why they make the decisions they do and how they spend public money.

Publication Schemes

Section 23 of the Act requires all public authorities including sportscotland to have in place a Publication Scheme which sets out publicly the information that they publish, the form in which it is published, and details of any charges for providing the information. Should you wish to obtain information from sportscotland, we would invite you to first access our Publication Scheme.

Making a Request for Information

If the information you require is not included in sportscotland’s Publication Scheme you can search our web-site, or submit a written request for the information. Written requests for information from  sportscotland should be submitted to:

Lynda Vince
Freedom of Information Officer
sportscotland
Caledonia House
South Gyle
Edinburgh
EH12 9DQ

Enquiry Line: 0131 317 7200
Email: lynda.vince@sportscotland.org.uk
Fax: 0131 317 7202

Should you wish to obtain information from one of the National Centres, we would first invite you to access the Publication Schemes of the Centres. If the  information you require is not available as part of their Publication Schemes, you can submit a written request to the relevant officer:

Tim Walker
Principal
sportscotland National Centre Glenmore Lodge
Aviemore
Inverness-shire PH22 1QU Tel: 01479 861 256 Fax: 01479 861 212
tim.walker@glenmorelodge.org.uk 

John Kent
Principal
sportscotland National Centre Inverclyde
Burnside Road
Largs
Ayrshire
KA30 8RW
john.kent@sportscotland.org.uk

John Kent
Principal
sportscotland National Centre Cumbrae
Isle of Cumbrae
Ayrshire
KA28 0HQ
john.kent@sportscotland.org.uk

Responding to Requests for Information

Once our Freedom of Information Officer - or the Freedom of Information Officer from the relevant National Centre - receives your request, he or she will investigate firstly whether we hold the information you require, and secondly whether there are any exemptions governing the release of the information. Further details on possible exemptions that might apply are available in the Act. Providing no exemptions apply to the information requested, sportscotland is obliged to provide the information requested within 20 working days.

From time to time we may publish on this website information which we have released in response to a request under the Act.  To see any such recently published information, click here.

How do I access personal information held by sportscotland

Requests for personal information are dealt with under the Data Protection Act 1998 and are exempt under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002.

Under the Data Protection Act 1998 you have the right to ask sportscotland to inform you whether it processes any personal information relating to you and if so to provide you with a copy of such data. This is called a subject access request.

Further information on the Data Protection Act 1998 and on how to submit a subject access request to sportscotland can be accessed in the Privacy and Data Protection section of this website - see the link in the "see also" panel on the right hand side of this page.

Responsibility for Freedom of Information and Data Protection