Dunion fiddles while FoI burns

Dunion fiddles while FoI burns

This is the Scottish Information Commissioner, Kevin Dunion. He is responsible for enforcing and promoting Freedom of Information in Scotland.

He is head of the Scottish Information Commissioner's Office, which is based in St Andrews. The operational costs of his office cost the taxpayer around £1.6million in 2008 (http://www.itspublicknowledge.info/nmsruntime/saveasdialog.asp?lID=3048&sID=234). As Commissioner, he earns over £80,000 a year.

Not content with this, Dunion recently ran for the post of Rector of St Andrews University (http://kevindunion.org.uk). He now divides his time between his Freedom of Information office and his role as student Rector, where has has promised to commit one day every week to being Rector, meet regularly with student representatives and students and have his finger on the pulse of student issues.

The University advises that "Potential candidates for the Rectorship should be aware of the demanding nature of this role given the Court's increasing financial, governmental and other responsibilities."

At a time when FoI in the UK needs strong leadership, maybe this is a signal that it's time for a new Information Commissioner in Scotland - one who will focus on the job in hand and one who will truly fight to extend the boundaries of Freedom of Information in Scotland.