Thousands of people have lost the right to information about how their money is being spent because of a decade of government "delaying tactics", campaigners have said.
Holyrood is considering "technical" amendments to the 10-year-old Freedom of Information Scotland Act (FOISA).
However, freedom of information (FoI) campaigners are incensed that the review will not include the plethora of former public services that now operate outside the law because they have been taken over by arms-length bodies.
There are now 130 arms-length external organisations (ALEOs) delivering public services that have no compulsion to reveal information. Some 15,000 former council tenants that once had the right to know how their money is being spent have been deprived through moving the housing stock out of council control to housing associations.
"That is just one area of public service," Information Commissioner Rosemary Agnew told Holyrood's Finance Committee. "I am disappointed that the opportunity hasn't been taken to have the discussion about how and to where we extend FOISA."
She said the bodies covered have not been reviewed since FOISA was enacted in 2002.
Carol Ewart, co-convenor of the Campaign for Freedom for Information, accused successive Scottish governments of "delaying tactics". She said previous consultations on extending the Act were "asymmetrical" as they favoured the objections of public bodies over the public's right to know.
Infrastructure Secretary Nicola Sturgeon, whose new remit also includes FoI, later told the committee: "The Government is committed to promoting transparency and operating as openly as possible.
"It's important at this stage, given that we have taken the decision to defer, that we don't get into a pre-emptive discussion about particular bodies. I know as well as you do some of the bodies and the kinds of contracts that people want to have access to information about."
She said the FoI Amendment Bill would not take "particularly long" to get on the statute book, pledged to see what work could be done now to prepare for the debate on extending its remit and said she would return once the Bill is enacted to discuss a future timescale.
