Duncan Cantor

Senior public affairs officer at HBOS, Duncan Cantor came from Bupa where he was a senior policy analyst^[1]. Cantor is currently on secondment to the Scottish Parliament, where he is secretary to the Cross Party Group on the Scottish Economy, which amounts to HBOS contributing £17602 in 2006 to give Cantor access to the Parliament^[2]. The secondment is for three years and is due to end in May 2007^[3].

The secondment of a member of HBOS' public affairs staff to the Scottish Parliament was originally agreed with the secondment of Alastair Ross, Government & Community Relations Executive at HBOS who worked two days per week at the Parliament as secretary to the Group until May 2006. He was succeeded by Barry Gardner, Director of PR at HBOS, until end August 2006. Duncan Cantor, Senior Public Affairs Officer, then took up the role from September 2006.

Getting indepth information on exactly what it is that Cantor does at the Parliament is difficult. A request for information under the terms of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act (FOISA) was delayed and refused on the grounds that Cantor's employment is not covered by the FOIA, as per the Scottish Information Commissioner's 2005 ruling.^[4] A copy of the letter declining the request can be viewed below:

http://www.spinprofiles.org/images/c/c1/SP_FOI.pdf

This decision is currently being appealed because the ruling that the Scottish Parliament refers to relates to the disclosure of MSP's contituents enquiries and not officials of the Parliament. In the meantime, what we were able to ascertain was that Cantor has a Parliament email account; has a staff pass, giving him almsot unrestricted access; and is able to attend events as either a Parliament official or as a member of HBOS staff ^[5].

Notes

1. ^ 'Monkeying around with The Sun', The Sunday Herald, 08.10.06
2. ^ The Scottish Parliament Cross Party Group on the Scottish Economy (2006) Minutes of AGM & Meeting on Scotlnd's Rural Economy, 27/09/06.Accessed 09.02.07
3. ^ The Scottish Parliament Cross Party Group on the Scottish Economy (2006) Cross Party Group of the Scottish Parliament Annual Return Form.Accessed 14/02/07
4. ^ Scottish Information Commissioner (2005) Decision 008/2005 - Mr Shields and the Scottish Parliament. Last accessed 20/04/07
5. ^ Macauley, S. (2007) Official Response to Request for Information from the Scottish Parliament 2007-010270. 15th March 2007. Received by email.