Information Commissioner's Office

County Durham NHS Primary Care Trust

26 February 2007, Health (NHS)

The complainant requested a summary of the medical care provided to her late daughter. This request was sent to Easington NHS Primary Care Trust, the responsibilities of which have now passed to County Durham NHS Primary Care Trust. In order to provide this information it would have necessitated providing information from the deceased person’s medical records. The public authority refused to provide this information and cited the exemption at section 41 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the “Act”), stating that the applicant was not the deceased person’s next of kin. Further to this the public authority noted that the deceased person had expressed a wish to her GP for details of her healthcare not to be disclosed to her parents. After examining the submissions by both parties the Commissioner concluded that the use of section 41 was valid. However, the Commissioner also concluded that the public authority initially issued an inadequate refusal notice, and therefore did not comply with section 17 when refusing the original request.

FOI 17: Upheld