This excerpt is from "Scottish Snippets." Eileen >Freedom of Information Act Passed The Scottish Parliament this week finally passed the legislation which allows individuals freedom of access to information held by government, local councils, schools, police and health service. While campaigners say that it still does not go far enough, the Freedom of Information Act goes further than anything seen in the UK for over 100 years. The principle of the legislation is that anything should be publicly available - unless there is an overwhelming reason why it should be kept secret. There will be an independent "watch dog" appointed by Parliament who will be able to order public bodies to release documents on request. The Justice Minister, Jim Wallace, claimed that the legislation demonstrated how "devolution is delivering" and had been tailored to meet the needs of Scotland. Even the critics had to grudgingly admit that it was a better set of rules than the one being progressed by the Parliament in London which will apply to England and Wales.