14 July 2025
NHS Forth Valley has been failing to adequately comply with Freedom of Information timescales for over 2 years. In November 2023 it was placed on a Level 1 intervention but failed to improve its performance, prompting Scottish Information Commissioner, David Hamilton, to escalate this to Level 3[1] the following year.
The Commissioner met with Ross McGuffie, Chief Executive of NHS Forth Valley in March 2025 but has yet to see the significant improvement required.
He has now written to Mr McGuffie, setting firm deadlines and warning that he will take the unprecedented and highly unusual step of issuing an enforcement notice if these improvements are not made. A failure to comply with such a notice may be reported to the Court of Session as a Contempt of Court.
David Hamilton, The Scottish Information Commissioner said, “I hope this serves as the wake-up call that NHS Forth Valley need. Their FOI response times over the last 18 months have been terrible.
There can of course be reasons for glitches in performance, but this has been far too prolonged. It is up to the Board to grasp the issues and to properly resource and support its staff in fulfilling these statutory duties.”
ENDS
