'Rostergate' FOI decision overturned by Scottish Government
The 'Rostergate' FOI request for the PR Marketing Services Framework with the Scottish Government has been released.
Following a review on appeal, the Government has chosen to release the successful tenders but will do so with commercially sensitive or personal information redacted.
A spokesperson for the Government confirmed that the information has been issued and that it would be published on the Scottish Government website ‘shortly’.
“We have notified the suppliers of our intention to release the redacted information,” the spokesperson also confirmed and explained that tender documentation informed that applications could potentially be made available through FOI requests.
‘Rostergate’ as it came to be known by the person responsible for initial FOI request, Scott Douglas of Holyrood Partnership caused concern amongst agencies to make the roster who were concerned that their business models could be laid bare for their competitors to see, causing harm to their own future business interests.
Douglas confirmed to The Drum that he had received the applications: “What I have received clearly reflects a properly transparent Government document which contains lots of the information which should be present but all sensitive information has been redacted appropriately. I did not issue the request as a way of viewing any sensitive or commercial information from another company, I did this simply to find out how best we and other PR agencies can get onto the framework in future.”
He continued: “I don’t believe that all of the agencies on the current framework are there by merit. That’s not to call them poor agencies, but I believe they are there because they can fill in forms better than much smaller agencies which can do just as good a job, but don’t know how to reflect that on paper. Hopefully they too will view these documents and come away with a clearer idea in future.”
At the time of the initial request an Industry Insider said: “It would be pretty galling for a rival agency, thanks to FOI, to simply download and plagiarise all this carefully honed copy. Especially so if they then couldn’t deliver on ‘their’ promises and the client is left with a sour taste whilst the reputation of the sector is tarnished.”
The CIPR also threatened action if it were found that a member agency was to have placed the request and it is understood it has looked into the matter.
Following the PR FOI request other FOI requests were placed for the Research and Design rosters as well.