Freedom of Information is increasingly under threat from the Scottish Government.
News in today’s Daily Record that only one third of requests result in full disclosure won’t come as a surprise to football fans who’ve had requests denied without any genuine reasoning. The UK average is that 57% of requests get full disclosure.
Many key areas in the governance scandal sinking Scottish football have been deemed too secretive for the public to get their eyes on including Alex Salmond’s discussions with HMRC to save Rangers from paying the income tax and national insurance that applies to every other sports club in the country.
In February 2012 the Daily Mail reported: ‘Salmond told Sir David Frost, in an interview to be broadcast on Frost over the World on Al Jazeera English: ‘Obviously HMRC have got to pursue, in the public interest, taxation.
‘Equally, they’ve got to have cognisance of the fact that we’re talking about a huge institution, part of the fabric of the Scottish nation, as well as Scottish football, and everybody realises that.
‘The most die-hard Celtic supporter understands that Celtic can’t prosper unless Rangers are there.
‘The rest of the clubs understand that as well. Therefore you have to have cognisance of these things when you’re pursuing public policy.
‘We’ve certainly been arguing to HMRC on one hand, and indeed to Rangers, to for goodness sake get a settlement, get a settlement and a structure over time whereby Rangers can continue because Rangers must continue for the future of Scottish football and for the fabric of the country.’
The fabric of the country has survived liquidation as HMRC battle with the Ibrox liquidators for their cut of the assets with Ibrox and Murray Park sold for a bargain £5.5m denying the public purse of much needed funds.
After being refused any access to the correspondence between Salmond and HMRC one taxpayer wrote: “There is very little point in having a foi act if government depts are going to behave like this.Â
“Alex Salmond said in a TV interview that he had lobbied HMRC on behalf of Rangers FCÂ
“But HMRC refuse to give ANY information even to the extent of acknowledging that Alex Salmond had contacted themÂ
“It reminds me of the cold war era where the govt refused to acknowledge that the security services even existedÂ
“Transparency in government?Â
“It will never catch on.”
Similar requests for correspondence between Glasgow City Council and the club at Ibrox have been refused with the City Council refusing to reassure fans over the safety of the stadium.