Whistleblowers’ experience of Edinburgh Council’s handling of freedom of information requests shows just how much reform of the system is needed, writes Herald columnist John McLellan

It’s been a bad week for openness in our poor, benighted wee country, the Scottish Parliament so often lauded by its own members as a shining beacon of democracy brought closer to the people while doing precisely the opposite.

But this time it is not just the SNP to blame, although the lion’s share of responsibility rests with the Scottish Government, but the likely collapse of the Freedom of Information Reform Bill has the tacit approval of opposition members on the Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments (SPPA) Committee which has accepted reform is necessary but unanimously agreed its terms have “not been sufficiently considered or laid out” for MSPs to approve its general principles, This is despite the legislation, brought forward as a member’s bill by West Scotland Labour MSP Katy Clark, being drafted by leading law firm Brodies and certified as competent by the Presiding Officer.

To we mere mortals, it seems strange for the committee to agree FoI reform is needed but not approve the principles, or for opposition MSPs to go along with it rather than try to force the SNP to vote against it when it comes before the full parliament. Seven years of work by the Campaign for Freedom of Information in Scotland could be for nothing – or at least delayed for another two or three years − if enough MSPs cannot be persuaded to back it, or for parties to promise reform in their election manifestos.

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