Scotland's freedom of information watchdog has warned that his office is under "unsustainable" strain after appeals from members of the public over public bodies withholding information rose by more than 80 per cent in a year. Scottish Information Commissioner David Hamilton said the surge, partly fuelled by AI-generated requests, meant his small team could not provide adequate oversight without further funding, a claim that has fed into Opposition criticism of the SNP government's approach to transparency.

Appeals to the SIC nearly doubled, from 593 in 2024-25 to 1,084 in 2025-26, an 83 per cent rise, while the number of FOI requests made to public bodies grew by 12,636 to 111,241 over the same period. Hamilton said AI tools were adding to the volume and complexity of requests, with one three-month period seeing 34 per cent of appeals found to be machine-generated, and said his roughly £2.7million budget would need to increase. Nearly 60 per cent of compliance issues logged related to local government, and the SIC ruled in favour of requesters, fully or partially, in three-quarters of formal decisions. Scottish Conservative MSP Murdo Fraser said the findings were a "damning indictment" of the SNP's record on transparency.