Belated transparency victory as Scottish Government agency to publish Covid-19 deaths by hospital figures scotsman.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from scotsman.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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Nicola Sturgeon has insisted her administration remains committed to “proper scrutiny and accountability”, after a government agency was criticised for trying to withhold care home death rates.
The first minister vowed to continue to “learn every possible lesson” from the pandemic amid a row over an attempt by National Records of Scotland (NRS) to block the publication of data on fatalities at individual facilities across the nation.
Opposition parties seized on a ruling by the Scottish Information Commissioner, which was made following a joint appeal by the DC Thomson newspaper titles, The Scotsman, The Herald and STV.
Care home death figures unlawfully withheld, commissioner rules
Updated: 21/05/2021, 4:48 pm
The number of coronavirus deaths at individual care homes was wrongly withheld, according to the Scottish Information Commissioner (Hannah McKay/PA)
Coronavirus care home death statistics were unlawfully kept secret by a department of the Scottish Government, the Scottish Information Commissioner has ruled.
National Records of Scotland (NRS), an agency of the Government responsible for recording deaths, withheld the number of confirmed and suspected Covid-related deaths in each of Scotland’s care homes.
The Scottish Government agency breached freedom of information (FoI) legislation by not releasing the figures and used a range of spurious and irrelevant excuses to try and justify its refusal to an FoI request, the commissioner found.
A SCOTTISH government agency was condemned today for unlawfully keeping the extent of Covid-19 care-home deaths a secret.
The National Records of Scotland (NRS) was found to have breached freedom of information (FoI) legislation by refusing to release the number of confirmed and suspected coronavirus-related deaths in each of Scotland’s care homes.
After a probe carried out as part of a joint project by the Scotsman, the Herald, DC Thomson and STV, the Scottish Information Commissioner ruled that NRS had used arguments that were “speculative in nature” to block the release of statistics.
The commissioner said the agency’s efforts to stop the publication of care home death numbers had involved time-wasting shuffling between care-sector bodies, and the commissioner’s office ruled that the NRS had failed to comply with FoI legislation.