Information that we may Withhold
All information covered by our publication scheme can either be accessed through our website, or will be provided promptly following our receipt of your request.
Our aim in maintaining this publication scheme is to be as open as possible. You should note, however, that there may be limited circumstances where information will be withheld from one of the classes of information listed in
Section 12 - Classes of Information. Information will only be withheld, however, where FOISA (or, in the case of environmental information, the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004) expressly permits.
Information may be withheld, for example, where its disclosure would breach the law of confidentiality, harm an organisation's commercial interests, or endanger the protection of the environment. Information may also be withheld if it is another person's personal information, and its release would breach the data protection legislation.
Under section 1 of FOISA, a person who requests information from a Scottish public authority which holds it is entitled to be given it by the authority and we endeavour to provide as much information as possible in response to requests. However, given the nature of the work of the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, and the strategic aim of the Service as a whole, not all of the information held can or should be included in the publication scheme, for sound public policy reasons.
Any possibility that information provided by witnesses or victims may subsequently be disclosed other than in court could undermine public confidence in the criminal justice system. Witnesses and people under investigation should not be inhibited or deterred from co-operating in criminal investigations by the possibility that information provided may be disclosed and that their identity is revealed to the public outwith the protection of the court.
Disclosure of any aspect of a criminal investigation may prejudice or bar future criminal proceedings. Information which is, for any reason, of a sensitive nature is not likely to be made available to the public in general. Similarly information which is sensitive or confidential, for example because it relates to intelligence or security matters, or consists of legal advice given during consideration of legal proceedings, is not included in our scheme.
Information held by or on behalf of the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service for the purposes of a criminal investigation or criminal proceedings, or for Fatal Accident Inquiries which have not yet concluded is exempt from disclosure, subject to a public interest test under section 2 of the Act which requires us to conduct a balancing exercise to ensure that the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the requested information.
Requests for Access to Case Papers
Generally, access will rarely be provided to papers generated or received by the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service in the course of a criminal inquiry, as most documents contain personal or sensitive personal data within the meaning of the Data Protection Act 1998. If you require access to your own personal data held within these files, it will not be provided under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act, but under the subject access provisions of the Data Protection Act 1998 (see above). However, each application for information will be considered separately and a decision about provision of information will be made, on a case by case basis.
Whenever information is withheld we will inform you of this and will set out why that information cannot be released. Even where information is withheld it may, in many cases, be possible to provide copies with the withheld information edited out.
If you wish to complain about any information which has been withheld from you, please refer to
Section 10 - Complaints.