Scottish RSLs and freedom of information

Alex Skene made this Freedom of Information request to Scottish Housing Regulator

The request was successful.

From: Alex Skene

23 October 2008

Dear Sir or Madam,

The regulator of housing associations in England (The Housing
Corporation) has this to say about Freedom of Information and
Registered Social Landlords, whilst acknowledging that they aren't
subject to the FOIA 2000:

"You can also write to housing associations. Most try to be as open
as possible and will provide you with information when they are
able. The Housing Corporation requires housing associations to be
accessible, accountable and transparent to residents and other
stakeholders. The National Housing Federation Code of Governance
states that associations should operate in an open and accountable
manner by generally making information about their work available
to their residents, local communities and other stakeholders."
<<http://www.housingcorp.gov.uk/upload/pdf...>>

Does the Scottish Housing Regulator hold any similar position or
policy papers or other correspondence regarding how Scottish
housing associations should respond to requests for information
(including Environmental information) in the spirit of openness? I
would be grateful if you could provide me with these.

If you do not hold this information, please could treat this email
as part of your standard correspondence (ie outside the bounds of
FOISA), and outline your policy of how you believe RSLs in Scotland
should treat requests for information from the general public.

Yours faithfully,

Alex Skene

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Scottish Housing Regulator

3 November 2008

Alex

Thank you for your request on information regarding the Scottish Housing
Regulator's view on the accountability of RSLs. We are currently dealing
with this and will reply to you with more details soon.

Best wishes

Andy Robinson
Scottish Housing Regulator
6th Floor Highlander House
0141 305 4090

please note that my e-mail address has now changed to the one below.
Please amend your records.

[1][email address]

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Communications via the GSi may be automatically logged, monitored and/or
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Scottish Housing Regulator

10 November 2008

Dear Alex

I am writing regarding your request for information, which I received on
24^th October. In that request, you asked us for papers or other
correspondence regarding how Scottish housing associations should respond
to requests for information. I emailed you again on 3^rd November to let
you know we were looking into it.

Having had some time to look at your request in detail in order to
identify and locate the information that you have asked for we need some
further information from you. This is because there are various
interpretations of the question you have asked. In particular, it would be
useful to know if you are asking for information about communications we
(The Scottish Housing Regulator) have had with Registered Social Landlords
about how they should respond to requests for information under FOI or
communications we have had with Government about RSLs and Freedom of
Information or, finally, correspondence with RSLs about information
requests we have received about them.

I'm sorry that I'm unable to give you a speedy response but I want to
ensure that you get the information you really want.

As I am unable to continue without this, I will put your request on hold
until I hear back from you.

If you wish to discuss any of the above, please contact me.

Best wishes

Andy Robinson
Scottish Housing Regulator
6th Floor Highlander House
0141 305 4090

please note that my e-mail address has now changed to the one below.
Please amend your records.

[1][email address]

show quoted sections

Communications via the GSi may be automatically logged, monitored and/or
recorded for legal purposes.

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]

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From: Alex Skene

10 November 2008

Dear Andy,

Your first and second interpretations of my request are both most
relevant to what I'm looking for. To help keep my request within
the cost limits, I would be happy to receive representative samples
of correspondence that give a flavour of the advice rather than all
documentation held on the subject.

Let me know if you need further clarification.

Kind regards

Alex Skene

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Scottish Housing Regulator

20 November 2008

Attachment Extending FOISA letter to Alicia McKay 23 9 08.doc
380K Download View as HTML

Alex

Thank you for clarifying the position regarding the level and extent of
the information you requested.

You asked for two things:

1) - communications the Scottish Housing Regulator has had with RSLs about
how they should respond to requests for information under FOI.

We have had no communications with RSLs about this subject. Because RSLs
are not public bodies they are not subject to the FOIA and we therefore
have not needed to issue guidance or advice on this matter. However that
does not mean that we have not encouraged them to be open and accessible.
We recently published a report which looked at this issue. The study aimed
to provide a national picture of landlords’ openness and accessibility
to their tenants and other people who have an interest in their services,
and to identify examples of positive practice. It focused on information
about governance, performance and complaints. The findings were circulated
to the RSL sector and can be found here:

[1]http://www.scottishhousingregulator.gov....

2) communications between SHR and government about RSLs and FOI.

You said you would be happy to receive representative samples which give
you a flavour of advice rather than all communications. I have attached a
document which I hope will give you this flavour. It is a letter from our
Head of Policy & Corporate Services to the Scottish Government in response
to their request for comments on the possible extension of the FOI to
RSLs.

There is more communication spread over quite a long time-period but I do
think this captures the overall discussion.

You may be interested to know that the Scottish Government have recently
published a discussion paper on extending FOI to other bodies (including
RSLs). This can be found here:

[2]http://www.scotland.gov.uk/About/FOI/Cov...

I hope this helps. Feel free to let me know if you require any more
information.

Best wishes

Andy

Andy Robinson

Scottish Housing Regulator

6th Floor Highlander House

0141 305 4090

please note that my e-mail address has now changed to the one below.
Please amend your records.

[email address]

 

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From: Alex Skene

20 November 2008

Dear Andy,

Many thanks for all the information provided - via the useful
report provided in the first link, I was able to find the SHR
"Regulatory Code of Governance" and its associated supporting
guidance document which contained exactly what I was after.

I read about the FOISA coverage extension discussion paper
yesterday, so the letter you provided from your Head of Policy was
very appropriate.

Kind regards & thanks again

Alex Skene

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Things to do with this request

Anyone:
Scottish Housing Regulator only: