https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/25195924.nhs-fife-rebuked-watchdog-sandie-peggie-foi-failures/?ref=twtrec
'Scotland’s Information Commissioner has found NHS Fife mishandled FOI requests over the cost of the Sandie Peggie tribunal after it failed to even check whether it held the information.
The watchdog has ordered the beleaguered health board to carry out fresh reviews.
In a scathing decision, David Hamilton said he was “frustrated” by the board’s handling of the requests, accusing NHS Fife of causing unnecessary delays.
The case centres on requests submitted by three applicants — including The Herald — seeking details of costs incurred by NHS Fife in the case taken by Ms Peggie, a nurse at Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy.
NHS Fife refused to release the information and rejected an initial appeal, prompting an application to the Commissioner.
In his investigation, Mr Hamilton found that the board did not appear to have undertaken any searches in response to the request for information.
Instead, the board had sought figures from its legal advisers at the Central Legal Office (CLO). Those figures were obtained only after The Herald and others had made requests for a review.
The Commissioner said he "cannot... be satisfied that the Authority did not hold any information falling within the scope of the requests at the date it received them. Even
allowing for whatever relevant arrangements it may have with the CLO, he cannot accept the Authority reaching a conclusion on what it holds, in the circumstances, wholly without recourse to its own records."
This failure, he added, led to an “unnecessary delay [that] hampers the applicants with their information rights and reflects poorly on the Authority.”
He also rejected NHS Fife’s arguments for withholding the later-obtained data.
The board had claimed that disclosure would harm commercial interests or jeopardise health and safety, and that the information was personal data.
Mr Hamilton dismissed these arguments and noted that legal fees paid by a public body were not inherently private.
He further criticised the board for failing to inform applicants that its legal costs were covered by an indemnity scheme, which limits public spending in such cases.
NHS Fife has now been ordered to carry out proper searches and issue revised review decisions by 14 July 2025.
Failure to comply could see the matter referred to the Court of Session'.