Storas Uibhist

Before I left I made a post suggesting that all was not well in Storas Uibhist, and that no doubt everything would come to light whilst I was away. Never a truer word. As I switched off my computer to leave home and go to the airport, I found an email advising me that the requested documents were now in the public domain.

And explosive they are too. At the risk of repeating what has already been well publicised whilst I was away, the resignation letters paint a very unpleasant picture, which I sincerely hope has no basis in truth. This is what I had been told, and what I had hoped to unearth.

Whatever has happened - and it is obviously very serious - the people of Uist deserve to be told the truth and to take decisions about their future with that information to hand. The apparently weak response from HIE, needs a serious political push and a lot of political support to ensure that the Uisteach have not been mislead about what is planned for their community.

On checking my home email, the following message was sent to me by a HIE officer on 8 May:

The network has received a Freedom of Information (FOI) enquiry for the name of the individual who recently submitted a request relating to Sealladh na Beinne Moire. In the past the network has disclosed this type of information, but should you have any concerns with your name being disclosed please let me know by Thursday 10th May.

If I do not hear from you, I will assume that you are happy for your name to be released to be disclosed.

I was a bit annoyed, and replied last night:

As I have been away on holiday for the past two weeks until today, I have been unable to respond to your message within the ludicrously short timescale.

I actually have no problem with my identity being known, as I have made it public on my blog, but as a matter of course you should identify the inquirer to the inquired about. Please therefore advise me of the identity of the person submitting the FoI request to identify me. Or do I have to submit and (sic) FoI? :-)

Today I received the following:

Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) withheld your details as disclosure may have resulted in a breach of the first data protection principle of processing personal data fairly and lawfully without consent. In general, the network's policy is to withhold details of FOI enquirers where we have not received their consent, and as we had not heard from you and found that you had been holiday when we contacted your office, we withheld your details. However, as you have no issue with your name being released we will now disclose your details to the
enquirer.

In response to your enquiry to know the identity of the person making the request, we will process your request in accordance with our policy mentioned above and the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002. We will aim to respond as quickly as possible but in any event within 20 working days from the date the enquiry was received.

So who is the mystery enquirer? Will they ask for anonimity? Read it here first.

On the upside, I know journalists were on the story, but it is nice to see that my FoI request on 6 April was ahead of the game, and onto a big story.