The Scottish Information Commissioner has introduced a new case management measure to protect the integrity of the FOI appeals process from the impact of high-volume, machine-generated requests driven by artificial intelligence tools.
The measure will give Commissioner David Hamilton the ability to restrict the number of FOI appeals from an individual requester under live investigation to five, in circumstances where it is deemed appropriate to do so.
The Commissioner has been careful to stress the targeted nature of the policy. It will not be applied generally to all individuals who have more than five active appeals at any one time, but is specifically intended for use where there is evidence that a pattern of submissions is likely to have a negative impact on the functioning of Scotland's FOI regime as a whole.
The trigger for the new policy is a sharp rise in appeals volumes. The number of appeals made to the Commissioner increased by 83% over the last year, from 593 in 2024–25 to 1,084 in 2025–26. This included a two-month period in which 120 appeals were received from just two applicants, with evidence that those appeals had been generated entirely through AI. Those cases were subsequently closed before reaching investigation.
Where implemented, additional cases from the same requester would be held back and not progressed until existing live cases were resolved. Commissioner staff would work with applicants to prioritise the cases most important to them.
The measure does not prevent requesters from submitting further appeals, nor does it guarantee that held-back cases will go uninvestigated. It is described as discretionary and will be applied on a case-by-case basis. It has not yet been used.
The Scottish ICO said that public polling commissioned by the office found significant support for some form of controls: 85% of respondents with a view expressed support for measures to address high-volume AI requests. The policy was advised to the Scottish Parliament in January and shared with stakeholders at the Scottish Public Information Forum on 8 June 2026, where it received general support.
Commissioner Hamilton said: "This new defensive measure will not be used lightly, but it is available to be used in circumstances where it is necessary to protect the integrity of our FOI regime. As evidence of an increase in machine generated requests and appeals grows, it is vital to ensure that the FOI rights of others are not exploited or harmed by a proliferation of automated requests."
He added that the challenge was not unique to his office: "I am not the only regulator, nor the only public service, which is experiencing such challenges. I think the time is right for a national conversation about the impact of machine-generated AI activity on our public services."
The Commissioner is also preparing a guide to the effective use of AI when making FOI requests, due to be published shortly. The new measure will be incorporated into a forthcoming version of the office's Investigation Handbook.
The development follows wider concern about AI's growing influence on FOI demand across the UK. Recent polling by the UK Information Commissioner's Office estimated that around one eighth of recent requests made under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 had been suggested by AI tools.
