Education (Scotland) Act 2025

Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002

230. Paragraph 3 adds Qualifications Scotland to the list of Scottish public authorities in schedule 1 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (“the FOI (S) Act”). This means that Qualifications Scotland will be subject to the requirements which the FOI (S) Act places on public bodies, including requirements to provide information to the public on request and to have in place a scheme under section 23 of that Act for the pro-active publication of information it holds.

231. Being a public authority within the meaning of the FOI (S) Act also makes Qualifications Scotland a “Scottish public authority” to which the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 apply.

232. In addition, it means that Qualifications Scotland falls within the definition of a “public body” under section 44 of the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009. This means that it must act in a way calculated to contribute to the delivery of climate change targets and any climate change adaptation programme and in the way that it considers is most sustainable. It can also have further duties, including reporting duties, imposed upon it.

233. Further, as a public authority within the meaning of the FOI (S) Act, Qualifications Scotland is a “public authority” or “public body” for the purposes of the General Data Protection Regulation by virtue of section 7 of the Data Protection Act 2018 (provided the power under that section to remove such status is not exercised). The General Data Protection Regulation (also commonly referred to by the acronym “GDPR”) is Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data. There are particular rules applied to bodies classified as “public authorities” (over and above those applied to all data processors) in the GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018. An analysis of those rules is beyond the scope of these Notes.