Staff Confidentiality Agreements and Related Disciplinary Actions

Dear Sir,

I would like to request the following information about your
organisation's staff confidentiality agreements and related
disciplinary actions:

1. Copies of all confidentiality clauses, agreements or policies
that staff are required to abide by. Please include any
non-standard clauses which apply to particular groups of staff, or
individuals. I am expecting the release of any relevant standard
clauses contained within employment contracts as well as relevant
policies such as your whistle-blowing policy, and any rules guiding
staff participation in online discussion, blogging and social
networking sites.

2. The number of times staff members have faced disciplinary
actions or proceedings as a result of breaching these
confidentiality agreements, policies and clauses.

3. A listing of these disciplinary actions broken down by the date
and type of disciplinary action taken (eg verbal warning, demotion,
loss of benefit, etc)

4. The number of staff dismissed as a result of breaching or
infringing confidentiality agreements.

5. Of those i) disciplined and ii) dismissed - How many had a
defence of whistleblowing?

I would like this data annually for most recent three year period
(either calendar or financial depending on how you record data). I
would like the response to incorporate data relating to individuals
who are not directly employed by the trust such as agency staff.

With respect to policies clauses and agreements only those
currently in-force are being requested.

I would like to clarify that I am only seeking policies etc.
relating to the staff-employer relationship ie. the rules staff
agree to follow as individuals. I am not asking the release of
trust policies intended to maintain patient confidentiality.

If there are problems collecting this data then under the duty
which section 16 of the freedom of information act puts on public
bodies to provide advice and assistance I would be grateful if you
could provide me with the following meta data on how this
information is recorded:

• the computer or records management system that is used to store
this data

• what fields are contained in the database

I would prefer to receive this information, electronically, via the
WhatDoTheyKnow.com email address I have provided. If one part of
this request can be answered sooner than others, please send that
information first followed by any subsequent data. If you need any
clarification of this request please feel free to email me. If FOI
requests of a similar nature have already been asked could you
please include your responses to those requests.

In order to save costs and identify the issues at an early stage, I
would like to express my view that the following freedom of
information act exemptions are not applicable to the information I
am requesting:

s. 41 Confidentiality
There can be no confidentiality issue arising from the provision of
simple statistics since the numbers of disciplinary actions and of
their outcomes would not constitute confidential information under
the threshold test set out in Coco v. Clarke [1969 RPC 41] and
subsequent case law (Lion Laboratories [1985] QB 526, Cream
Holdings v. Banerjee [2004] 4 All ER 617 and London Transport v.
The Mayor of London [2001] EWCA 1491). The entire freedom of
information regime was brought in so that governance issues should
become public, and the public interest cannot be thwarted by
claiming confidence where no confidence properly attaches. The NHS
public authority has a duty to consult with all employees subject
to disciplinary actions, and ask whether they would consent to
their information (personal details) being made public. Consent is
a complete defence to any claim by the NHS authority in confidence.

s. 40 Personal information
The numbers are not sufficiently relatable to any living individual
for any data protection right to subsist. The NHS public authority
has a duty to ask those employees subject to disciplinary process
whether they consent to their personal information being released.

I would be grateful if you could reply to this email confirming you
received this request. I understand that, according to the freedom
of information act, I am entitled to a response within 20 working
days.

Regards,

Heather Brooke