Housing associations could be forced to open their records to the public under plans being considered by Scottish ministers to make them subject to Freedom of Information legislation.

Margaret Curran, Minister for Parliamentary Business, signalled the organisations, which are not public bodies and therefore not governed by the FoI Act, may be brought under its authority.

That would mean tens of thousands of housing association tenants would have a statutory right to access information regarding their homes and their landlords.

In particular, it would mean tenants could demand information relating to the housing stock transfers that have taken place in Glasgow, the Borders, the Western Isles, Argyll and Bute, Dumfries and Galloway and Inverclyde over the past five years.

Although the transfers have been ratified in tenant referendums, the transference of council houses to the not-for-profit housing associations have proved unpopular with some tenants.

Ms Curran said housing associations were just one of a number of organisations which could be made subject to the FoI Act by the end of the year.

However, she said it may only be the larger organisations, such as Glasgow Housing Association, a landlord to more than 80,000 homes, which are made subject to the legislation.

She said: "FoI provides ministers with a power to bring other organisations which are not Scottish public authorities within the coverage of the act. It has always been our intention to use this power when appropriate.

"The executive will be finalising the conditions for considering a body for coverage, and consult with those bodies which ministers decide are suitable before the end of the year.

"While more evidence needs to be gathered, I would say there are strong arguments to be made for extending the coverage to larger housing associations such as Glasgow and I have asked officials to look into this."