The Commissioner is a fully independent public official. His
duties and legal powers should ensure that people get the
information from Scottish public authorities to which they are
entitled. He has a number of responsibilities which include:
dealing with complaints, promoting good practice to authorities,
informing the public about the Act and enforcing the Act.
Complaints concerning requests can only be made to the
Information Commissioner once an applicant has exhausted the
National Museums Scotland internal review process. If an applicant
is dissatisfied with the response from the authority, they can take
their complaint to the Scottish Information Commissioner. If the
Commissioner decides to proceed he will invite comments from the
Museum and then decide if the complaint is valid. The Commissioner
will notify both the applicant and the Museum of his decision.
On occasions the Commissioner will require more information
before he can make a decision concerning a complaint. He may then
issue the authority with an information notice and he also has the
right to apply for a warrant to enter an authority's premises and
remove documents.