Image source, PA

That ends our coverage of the Scottish Parliament for Tuesday 13 June 2017.

We'll be back tomorrow.

Have a good night.

Tory MSP Edward Mountain raises a point of order saying yet again no answers have been given to the questions asksed and that is why there are so many FOI requests.

The deputy presiding officer says that is not a point of order.

Mr Fitzpatrick says he notes the concern of the journalists and that all information requests are dealt with within the guidelines in the public domain.

The parliamentary business minister says there is a clear appeals process.

He says he does not want to be here having to defend the government on this issue.

Mr Fitzpatrick says the government fully complies with all record keeping processes.

He says yesterday he signed the first commencement of the Lobbying Scotland Act which will increase transparency.

"Given we have a parliament of minorities" increasing transparency is important, he says.

Mr Fitzpatrick says a request can be refused only if it requires 40 hours work.

The minister again says the Scottish government again compares favourably to the UK government in this area.

Mr Fitzpatrick says the FOI statistics for the UK show it responds to only 63% of requests compared to 55% here in Scotland.

Mr Fitzpatrick says performance is better but he recognises that it is not good enough.

Labour MSP Neil Findlay asks if the minister does not understand that FOI requests will go down if parliamentary questions are answered properly as opposed to with "dross".

Mr Fitzpatrick says "thank you" and that he is short of time.

He refers to Westminster's record on FOI.

Lib Dem MSP Tavish Scott intervenes to ask the minister to address the letter rather than talk about Westminster.

The parliamentary business minister says he will address the letter.

Image source, bbc

Parliamentary Business Minister Joe Fitzpatrick says he recognises the performance in responding to FOI requests on time is not good enough.

Labour MSP Neil Findlay says the commissioner's report says she received showed 10 FOI requests not answered but ministers said there were none.

Mr Fitzpatrick says he would have to look into those figures.

He says he hopes members will acknowledge his admission the government is not where it wants to be.

The minister says by April this year there were more FOI request in 2017 than there were in the whole of 2016.

Parliamentary Business Minister Joe Fitzpatrick says he wants to highlight the government's efforts in being open and transparent.

Mr Fitzpatrick says nothing has been taken off the website in terms of information and that as a country "Scotland can be proud of its record in FOI."

Lib Dem MSP Tavish Scott intervenes to ask why the previous Information Commissioner described the government ministers as "rude".

Mr Fitzpatrick says that will be covered later.

Image source, bbc

Labour MSP Richard Leonard says the very virtues of openness in the Freedom of Information Act 2002 have been changed in practice for vices of secrecy.

Mr Leonard says there has been total silence tonight from SNP MSPs.

The Labour MSP says the government's first instinct is to tell members of this parliament as little as possible and it this first instinct journalists object to.

He says agendas and minutes of meetings should be published by the government as a matter of course.

The Labour MSP says the SNP are on one side and the sovereign parliament, the press and the people are on the other.

Tory MSP Edward Mountain says that it is disappointing that journalists have concerns over how the legislation is being interpreted.

Mr Mountain says he has "huge sympathy" with the journalists and that they, and members of this parliament, are being treated differently and that it is unnacceptable.

He questions whether the government has a transparency problem or a culture of secrecy.

The Tory MSP says when he asks questions they are normally met with a smokescreen.

Lib Dem MSP Tavish Scott says the government should do "no less" than a full scale inquiry into the FOI system.

Mr Scott says a journalist pointed out that this begs the question whether or not the government are now not recording routine information that they previously recorded.

The Lib Dem MSP says "the government's behaviour has become institutional."

He says the culture needs to change and it is time it changed.

Image source, bbc

Green MSP Andy Wightman says the letter from the journalists comes on the back of criticism from the previous information commissioner Rosemary Agnew.

Mr Wightman says the failure to respond to requests on time could be addressed by tightening the law.

He says there should be a log of FOI requests and responses from public authorities.

The Green MSP says the FOI regime needs serious scrutiny.

The journalist's letter concludes: "We believe that review should also look closely at the question of whether the legislation should include a duty to record on government officials, advisers and ministers, particularly when meeting with outside bodies, individuals or lobbyists to discuss government policy."

The previous information commissioner, Rosemary Agnew, stood down in April after being appointed as the country's Public Services Ombudsman.

A panel of five MSPs, including presiding officer Ken MacIntosh, will interview candidates to succeed Ms Agnew - who had been highly critical of the handling of FoI by some public bodies - next week.

The acting commissioner, Margaret Keyse, welcomed the journalists' letter.

She said: "The journalists' experience points to potentially serious breaches of a statutory duty. The commissioner can investigate these breaches, but only if they are appealed to us."

A spokeswoman for the Scottish government said its records were kept in accordance with all relevant legislation and practice.

Labour MSP Monica Lennon says journalists have used FOI to great affect and sometimes with consequences for governments and individual politicians.

Ms Lennon says the government is "under attack" with this motion and therefore it is no surprise that no SNP member signed it but that it is an issue that should be taken seriously.

The Labour MSP says the evidence on FOI is in stark contract to the government's claim that it is open and transparent.

She says she asked the government for information on any meetings held by government on sanitary products and she is still waiting for that information.

Image source, bbc

Conservative MSP Graham Simpson says serious issues have been raised by the journalists and he says it is essential that the democracy is open and transparent.

Mr Simpson says he thinks the government has been trying to get around the law.

He says he has heard Parliamentary Business Minister Joe Fitzpatrick's vague and meandering response to this and he hopes for a better answer today.

He says FOI is not there to be got around.

Mr Findlay says he made a great number of FOI requests on transvaginal mesh and that the replies he has received are farcical.

The Labour MSP says these matters must be treated seriously and says that the Standards and Procedures Committee must look into this.

"We cannot allow the current practice to continue," he says.

Image source, bbc

Mr Findlay says his office uses FOIs regularly but time and time again the government blocks or redacts part of its response.

The Labour MSP gives examples of a series of meetings with no agenda and no minutes, for example between John Swinney and Angus Tulloch and a meeting between Nicola Sturgeon and the editor of the Sun.

For each meeting he cites he says: "No agenda, no minutes."

He says are we meant to believe that no substantive government business was discussed at these meetings.

The Labour MSP says the government thinks " we zip up the back".

Image source, Scottish Information Commissioner

Taken from the Scottish Information Commissioner website, external:

"The Scottish Information Commissioner's office promotes and enforces both the public's right to ask for the information held by Scottish public authorities, and good practice by authorities. Through her work, the Commissioner supports the openness, transparency and accountability of public bodies."