Information Commissioner's Office

University Hospital of North Staffordshire NHS Trust

30 August 2007, Health (NHS)

The complainant sought disclosure of an internal report prepared by the University Hospital of North Staffordshire NHS Trust following complaints that she made about a ward on which she had worked. The public authority initially refused to disclose the report under section 36 (prejudice to the effective conduct of public affairs). Subsequently, having disclosed the report with certain information redacted, it sought to rely on sections 40 (personal information) and 42 (legal professional privilege) of the Act in relation to the information that was withheld. The Commissioner upheld the decision of the public authority to withhold the majority of the information in the report on the basis of section 40. However, he determined that neither section 40 nor 42 were applicable to certain parts of the report. He also found that the public authority had not complied with section 17(1)(b) and (c) as it failed to state in its refusal notice that section 40 and 42 were applicable to the information requested and failed to explain why they applied.

FOI 17: Upheld