Dear Sir or Madam,

Dear Sir or Madam,

Please treat this as a request under the Freedom of Information Act
2000.

I am interested in the obligations of your force to victims/service
user confidentiality.

Can you please send me any policies/procedures applicable to police
officers and confidentiality?

Are police officers under a legal obligation to always respect
victims/service user confidentiality unless there are good reasons
to not do so?

What are the reasons when obligations of confidentiality can be
ignored?

Are there any sanctions available to the Chief Constable to bring
disciplinary action against police officers if confidentialities
are breached?

Are police officers subject to a Code of Conduct governing their
obligations to victim/service user confidentiality?

Please provide this Code of Conduct.

Is there any kind of employee handbook or confidentiality clause
that police officers have to sign?

Please provide a copy of that employee handbook (or relevant
page/s) or the confidentiality clause document.

Yours faithfully,

Arthur Peasgill

Dear Sir or Madam,

Please acknowledge my request. Merely to confirm request.

Yours sincerely,

Arthur Peasgill

Arthur,

I can confirm that that your request was received on the 27th February.

Many Thanks,

Paul.

Paul Walker
Lancashire Constabulary
Information Assurance Unit

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Dear Walker, Paul,

Thank you very much.

Yours sincerely,

Arthur Peasgill

Arthur,

Please note that the majority of your requests below are questions and
are not valid under Section 8 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, as
they appear to seek answers rather than information (i.e. specific
policies/reports/documents etc...) 'held' by the Constabulary. However,
in an attempt to be open I will hope to provide some general information
with may answer your enquiries.

Police Officers operate within The Police (Conduct) Regulations 2004, in
particular Section 7 of the Code of Conduct which specifically refers to
the issue of Confidentiality. The Regulations are in the public domain
and can be located here: http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2004/2004064....
There are on some occasions were information will be disclosed, i.e.
under the Victims Charter, which can be locate
http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/documents/v.... The issues of
disclosure and confidentiality are underpinned by the Data Protection
Act 1998 (http://www.opsi.gov.uk/Acts/Acts1998/ukp...) and
the ongoing Management of Police Information programme
(http://www.npia.police.uk/en/8489.htm).

Information relating to sanctions available is currently being composed
by our Professional Standards Department and I hope to provide some
relevant context to these within the next week or so.

In the meantime, I hope the above information assists.

Many Thanks,

Paul.

Paul Walker
Lancashire Constabulary
Information Assurance Unit

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Dear Walker, Paul,

Dear Walker, Paul,

Please arrange an internal review of this request. your response is
in no way adequate. For instance if you thought that my request was
not valid then you should have made contact and offered guidance in
order that I could refine my request.

However there has to be some kind of confidentiality document
signed by all employees of Lancashire police in order that
confidentiality is regarded as a requirement of employment. Please
suply any such document applicable to all employees. Similarly
there has to be some kind of employee document relevant to Data
Protection. Please supply that document. there is also a code of
Conduct applicable to the police. Please supply that Code of
Conduct. I don't refer to the regulations that ultimately lead to
that Code of Conduct.

For ease I refer to the original request below and the sections
numbered as 1 to 3.

Yours sincerely,

Arthur Peasgill

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Please treat this as a request under the Freedom of Information Act
2000.

I am interested in the obligations of your force to victims/service
user confidentiality.

1/ Can you please send me any policies/procedures applicable to
police officers and confidentiality?

Are police officers under a legal obligation to always respect
victims/service user confidentiality unless there are good reasons
to not do so?

What are the reasons when obligations of confidentiality can be
ignored?

Are there any sanctions available to the Chief Constable to bring
disciplinary action against police officers if confidentialities
are breached?

Are police officers subject to a Code of Conduct governing their
obligations to victim/service user confidentiality?

2/ Please provide this Code of Conduct.

Is there any kind of employee handbook or confidentiality clause
that police officers have to sign?

3/ Please provide a copy of that employee handbook (or relevant
page/s) or the confidentiality clause document.

Yours sincerely,

Arthur Peasgill

Arthur,

Thanks for your email. I can now confirm that an Internal Review will be
undertaken on the handling of your request. It is hoped that the review
will be conducted as soon as practicably possible. The target date for
the completion of your review is the 28th April 2009. Should this target
not be reached either myself or the reviewer will attempt to contact you
with a revised date.

In the meantime, I will adhere to collate and locate more relevant
information to your request and I hope to forward it in due course.

Many Thanks,

Paul.

Paul Walker
Lancashire Constabulary
Information Assurance Unit

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Dear Mr Peasgill

Please find attached a response to your recent request for an internal
review of the response to your recent FOI request.

Regards

Carl Melling

Data Protection and Information Officer

Corporate Support and Information Services

Resources Directorate

Lancashire Constabulary

Tel: 01772 413327

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