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Investigations Handbook

Investigations Handbook

The Investigations Handbook sets out the detailed procedures we follow when investigating appeals under:

  • The Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA)
  • The Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (the EIRs) and;
  • The INSPIRE (Scotland) Regulations 2009.

Download the Investigations Handbook here. 

The investigation process

There are four main strands to the investigation process:

  1. Validation: we must ensure an appeal is valid in law before we can investigate it
  2. Resolution: where possible we will resolve appeals without the need for a decision
  3. Investigation: we conduct a full investigation of appeals before reaching a decision
  4. Decision: the Commissioner issues a formal decision on the appeal.