Information Commissioner's Office

Royal Wolverhampton Hospitals NHS Trust

17 April 2007, Health (NHS)

The complainant sought disclosure of a report commissioned by the Royal Wolverhampton Hospitals NHS Trust regarding the standard of clinical practice of a particular surgeon. The public authority initially refused to disclose the report on the basis of the exemptions contained in sections 40 (personal information) and, subsequently, also sought to rely on section 41 (information obtained in confidence) of the Act. The Commissioner upheld the decision of the public authority to withhold the majority of the information in the report on the basis of sections 40 and 41. However, he determined that neither section 40 or 41 were applicable to a part of the report. He also found that the public authority had not complied with section 17(1)(a), as it failed to inform the complainant within 20 working days of receiving his request that it was relying on an exemption in Part II of the Act, nor section 17(1)(b) and (c), as it failed to state in its refusal notice that section 41 was applicable to the information requested nor explain why it applied.

FOI 17: Upheld