Chief police officers and building contractors could come under the remit of the Scottish version of the Freedom of Information Act.

The Scottish Government has announced it is to begin a formal consultation into extending the Act’s coverage north of the border.

Those which could be included in the Act are:

The announcement was made yesterday in Edinburgh by minister for parliamentary business Bruce Crawford MSP at the seventh annual Holyrood FOI Conference.

It mirrors a similar development in July when the Ministry of Justice announced it was consulting on whether to include Acpo, the Financial Services Ombudsman, the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service and Academy schools under the remit of the UK FoI Act.

The decision has been welcomed by the Scottish information commissioner Kevin Dunion.

He said: “I am pleased that the public’s right to information is being protected and in some cases extended by the Scottish Government’s proposals to bring bodies like local authority trusts, private prisons and PPP contractors within the scope of the Freedom of Information Act.

“I will use the period of consultation to argue that the right to information is not an unreasonable burden. There is no evidence of any material damage to commercial interests or public procurement from FoI disclosures in Scotland over the past five years.

“It needs to be accepted that where substantial sums of public money are being expended then the public should have right to know. Freedom of information should follow the public pound.”