Information Commissioner's Office

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You are here: BAILII >> Databases >> Information Commissioner's Office >> Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (Health) [2023] UKICO 251239 (13 October 2023)
URL: http://www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKICO/2023/251239.html
Cite as: [2023] UKICO 251239

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Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

The complainant has requested copies of lessons learned reports. The above public authority provided redacted copies of each report, relying on sections 40 (personal data), 41 (breach of confidence) and 42 (legal professional privilege) of FOIA to make the redactions. The Commissioner’s decision is that the public authority has correctly relied on sections 40 and 41 to withhold information. In respect of section 42, the exemption applies to some, but not all of the information to which it has been applied. Where the exemption is engaged, the balance of the public interest favours maintaining it. The public authority breached section 17 of FOIA because it failed to provide a refusal notice, within 20 working days, stating all the exemptions that it ultimately came to rely upon to withhold information. The Commissioner requires the public authority to take the following steps to ensure compliance with the legislation: Disclose all the redacted information in the boxes titled “If known…” and “Do you recommend…” in each report with the exception of the documents the public authority has identified to the Commissioner as LLR 3, LLR 10 and LLR 26. For document LLR 26 only, disclose the information contained in the box titled “Has the Trust…” Keywords/themes: litigation privilege

FOI 17: Complaint upheld FOI 42: Complaint partly upheld FOI 40: Complaint not upheld FOI 41: Complaint not upheld

Decision notice: 251239