Access order for homeless service

Glasgow City Council did not want to release details of the homeless deal

Scotland's largest council has been told to release details of a deal it had hoped to keep private.

The Scottish Information Commissioner ordered Glasgow City Council to give public access to the successful bid for its homeless street outreach service.

The council had argued that the deal with charities, Glasgow Simon Community and Barnardo's, would be commercially damaging and reveal a trade secret.

But Kevin Dunion disagreed and said disclosure was in the public interest.

The commissioner found that much of the withheld information simply described the service to be offered.

He also ruled that any financial information was specific to the service and would be unlikely to assist a competitor in any future tendering process.

I could not accept the council's claims that these interests would be substantially harmed by release Kevin Dunion Scottish Information Commissioner

Mr Dunion said: "An interesting feature of this case is that it involved charities competing for a contract with a public authority.

"I found that the information did involve the commercial interests of Barnardo's and Glasgow Simon Community but I could not accept the council's claims that these interests would be substantially harmed by release as much of the information was either already publicly known, or would shortly become so.

"In any case I took the view that it would be in the public interest for details of the successful tender to be made known."

The tender information was requested under freedom of information by Streetwork, another charity involved in the provision of homeless services.