Dunion spent periods in the civil service and university administration. He was Editor of the pro-devolution magazine
Radical Scotland. He joined
Oxfam as Campaigns Manager and then took up the post of Chief Executive of
Friends of the Earth Scotland. From 1996 to 2000 he also served as Chairman of Friends of the Earth International, heading delegations to the
United Nations and
European Commission. Dunion was for many years a notable proponent for
freedom of information, and gave evidence to the
Justice Committee scrutinising the passage of the Bill through the Scottish Parliament. He wrote the book
Troublemakers – The Struggle For Environmental Justice In Scotland.
Information Commissioner Dunion was appointed as the first
Scottish Information Commissioner in February 2003. He was reappointed in 2008. Towards the end of his second term he proposed extra powers that he thought that the next Commissioner would need. He left office on 23 February 2012 after two terms - a total of nine years in office, during which time he handled some 1,500 cases.
Academic bodies and other roles He was elected Lord
Rector of the University of St Andrews in October 2008. He is executive director of their Freedom of Information Centre. In 2012 he was appointed by the
President of the World Bank as a member of the bank's Access to Information Appeals Board. In April 2013 he was appointed as a non-lawyer member of the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission. In November 2016 it was announced that he would become the Convener of the Commission, taking up the position on 1 February 2017. ==Awards and honours==