8 June 2026
The Scottish Information Commissioner has introduced a new measure which aims to protect people’s right of appeal to his office under FOI law being negatively impacted by an influx of ‘machine-generated’ AI appeals.
The new measure will give the Commissioner the ability to restrict the number of FOI appeals from individual requesters under ‘live’ investigation to five, in circumstances where it is deemed appropriate to do so to protect the integrity of the FOI appeals process.
Importantly, this case management measure will not be applied generally to all individuals who have more than five appeals with the Commissioner at any one time. Indeed, the measure is specifically intended to be used in circumstances where there is evidence that a pattern of appeal submissions is likely to have a negative impact on the functioning of Scotland’s FOI regime as a whole. Where it is clear that AI tools have supported the submission of high volumes of ‘machine-generated’ FOI reviews and appeals, with little evidence of direct human involvement, the measure will assist the Commissioner to manage that demand.
In recent polling of the public by the Commissioner, 85% of respondents with a view expressed support for some kind of controls on high volume AI requests.
The measure comes in the wake of an 83% increase in the number of appeals made to the Commissioner over the last year, from 593 appeals in 2024-25 to 1,084 to 2025-26. This included a two-month period where the Commissioner received 120 appeals from just two applicants, with evidence that those appeals were entirely generated through the use of AI. These cases were subsequently closed prior to reaching investigation.
In the event that the policy is used, additional cases would be held back and not progressed until other cases were resolved.
The policy was advised to the Scottish Parliament in January earlier this year and shared with stakeholders at the Scottish Public Information Forum on 8 June 2026. It received general support at both sessions.
Commenting on the new measure, Scottish Information Commissioner David Hamilton said:
“This new defensive measure will not be used lightly, but it is available to be used in circumstances where it is necessary to protect the integrity of our FOI regime. As evidence of an increase in machine generated requests and appeals grows, it is vital to ensure that the FOI rights of others are not exploited or harmed by a proliferation of automated requests.
“I am not the only regulator, nor the only public service, which is experiencing such challenges. I think the time is right for national conversation about the impact of machine-generated AI activity on our public services. While AI tools can be extremely useful to people in supporting access to all sorts of information and services, it is vital that these tools continue to support and enhance the human experience, rather than circumvent it, or even crowd it out.”
The Commissioner is also preparing a guide the effective us of AI when making FOI requests. This guide will be published on his website shortly.
Some important points to note about the Commissioner’s new measure:
- The measure will be discretionary and implemented on a case-by-case basis, in circumstances where it is necessary to do so.
- Should the measure be implemented, our staff will work with applicants to prioritise their cases, ensuring that those which are most important to them are progressed first.
- The measure does not mean that other appeals made by an individual would not be investigated, nor that they would be prevented from submitting additional appeals. If the measure was applied, further cases would be progressed only once a ‘live’ case had concluded.
- The new measure will be included in a forthcoming version of our Investigation Handbook, which is due to be published shortly.
- The measure has not, to date, been implemented.
- Recent polling by the UK Information Commissioner’s office estimated that around one eighth of recent requests made under the Westminster FOI Act had been suggested by AI tools.
