Information Commissioner's Office

Barnet Enfield and Haringey Mental Health NHS Trust

30 April 2015, Health (NHS)

The complainant made a freedom of information request to Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Mental Health NHS Trust (“the Trust”) for information related to the investigation of an incident which he was involved with whilst visiting a patient at one of the Trust’s premises. The Trust refused the request under the exemptions in section 40(2) (personal information) and section 36(2)(b)(ii) (free and frank exchange of views / provision of advice). The Commissioner’s decision is that both section 40(2) and section 36 are engaged and that for section 36 the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosure. The Commissioner also found that one piece of information was exempt under the exemption in section 21 (information accessible by other means). In its handling of the request the Commissioner found that the Trust had identified all of the information it held falling within the scope of the requests but had breached section 10 by failing to respond to the request within 20 working days and section 11(a) by failing to give effect to the complainant’s preferred method of communication. The Commissioner requires no steps to be taken.  This decision notice is currently under appeal to the Tribunal.

FOI 21: Not upheld FOI 36: Not upheld FOI 40: Not upheld