[Passed: 5-0, Royal Assent: 1st Oct 2019]
An Act which enables any citizen of the Kingdom of Scone to make a request to the appointed Information Commissioner for information relating to business within Scone.
BE IT ENACTED by the King’s Most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords and Burgesses in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
I. SHORT TITLE This act may be cited for all purposes as the “ICA Act.”
II. CREATION OF THE POSITION OF INFORMATION COMMISSIONER A. A new position to be created within the kingdom of Scone to be known as the ‘Information Commissioner.’ For short, will be known as the ‘ICO’ B. The Information Commissioner will come under the Lord Chancellor’s office and be appointed on advice to the Sovereign.
III. CREATION OF A NEW FACEBOOK GROUP TO REPORT ON INFORMATION REQUESTS. A. A new Facebook group will be created in which the Lord Chancellor and the ICO will be admins for. The Page will be made private for Sconnish Citizens only. B. Request for information must be made public in this group for the Information Officers Office to review. C. No Requests shall be made privately and no information set out in the results will be provided privately. To ensure all requests are transparent, all information Requests and Responses will be set out on the new group page. D. When a request is made upon the group page, they will have no more than 30 days to obtain an answer to any request for information, they alone will make the formal enquiries required to ascertain the information requested. E. The ICO will compile information and deliver a report, if possible to the page under the original request. If the ICO determines that request falls under excepted material, the ICO must state why they are refusing and cite what exemption(s) they feel it falls under. F. Should it not be possible to gather the information within timescales, then an application for an extension must be made, stating the reason for not being to comply. E.g Incapacity, or personal vacation time.
IV. ACCESSIBILITY OF INFORMATION. A. Any citizen of the Kingdom, may make a request to ICO Office, then the ICO will have the stated 30 days to comply and make a report unless they have made an application for extension, under III F. B. A citizen may withdraw their request, by informing the ICO of their intention on the original Facebook post, however they may not delete their request as it must be recorded for any future requests of a similar nature. C. Requests can b made about any of the kingdom used platforms, may it be Facebook, Discord, the official Websites or any future platforms used for Kingdom business. D. Should a citizen revoke their citizenship during a period of investigation within the ICO office. It will be treated as withdrawn as set out in provision III B.
V EXEMPTIONS. A. Certain exemptions may be put in place as set out in the following. B. Information that is accessible by other means C. Where disclosure of information would infringe parliamentary privilege D. Information held by the cabinet where there could be prejudice on the effective conduct of public affairs. E. Where disclosing information could commit a contempt of court. F. Information held in Royal archives, including private conversations between ruling monarchs and regents. The Royal household is not a public authority and therefore this information is not public records. G. Any requests for information from the royal household shall be directed to the Sovereigns Private Secretary and shall not be subject to this act.
VI. ROUTE OF APPEAL. A. If the information requested by the ICO is refused, yet is lawful in its request, a denial of the request may be appealed to the Court of Common Pleas.
VII. COMMENCEMENT This legislation and all the provisions therein shall come into force upon receiving Royal Assent.