Scottish Govt challenges disclosure ruling on local income tax information

Scottish Ministers have appealed to the Court of Session after the Scottish Information Commissioner ordered documents detailing the financial implications of a proposed local income tax scheme be released to the Daily Telegraph.

On February 9, 2011, following a two-year dispute, the Scottish Information Commissioner ordered the information be disclosed:

“The information therein would contribute significantly to public understanding of how and why changing financial and economic circumstances in the period since 2007 had affected the viability of the Ministers’ policy to replace council tax with a local income tax. This could in turn allow informed discussion of the longer term viability of any such plans as economic circumstances have changed in the period since the revised revenue projections were prepared.”

The new appeal means the information will now not be released until well after the Scottish Parliament general election in May.

Read the Scottish Information Commissioner’s decision and the Daily Telegraph story.