Staff suspensions

Good Afternoon,
Thank you for your recent Freedom of Information Request detailed below.
The Council considers that the information you are requesting is exempt
information under Section 40 (2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000,
in that: the information to which your request relates constitutes
"personal data" under the Data Protection Act 1998, and you as applicant
are not the "data subject" in respect of the requested information.

"Section 40 (1) provides that "any information to which a request for
information relates is also exempt information, if -
(a) it constitutes personal data which do not fall within subsection
(1), and
(b) either the first or the second condition below is satisfied.

Section 40 (3) The first condition is-

(a) In a case where the information falls within any of the paragraphs
(a) to (e) of the definition of "data" in section 1 (1) of the Data
Protection Act 1998, that the disclosure of the information to a member
of the public otherwise than under this Act would contravene-
(i) any of the data protection principles, or

(ii) section 10 of that Act (right to prevent processing
likely to cause damage or distress."

The identity of any suspended staff and information relating to the
investigation of such staff; as this relates to a particular individual,
is personal data and the information requested is subject to an absolute
exemption from the duty to communicate if any of the eight data
protection principles would be contravened by its disclosure to the
public. The Council considers that disclosure of the information
requested by you would contravene the first data protection principle,
which provides that personal data shall be processed fairly and lawfully
and, in particular, shall not be processed unless at least one of the
conditions in Schedule 2 is met. The Council further does not consider
that any of the conditions in Schedule 2 would be met, particularly
Condition 6, which provides that the processing is necessary for the
purposes of legitimate interests pursued by the party to whom the data
are disclosed, except where the processing is unwarranted in any
particular case by reasons of prejudice to the rights and freedoms or
legitimate interests of the data subject. The Council considers there
would be prejudice to the rights and freedoms or legitimate interests of
the data subjects if information about suspended staff were to be
disclosed.

The Council further considers that disclosure of the requested
information would also breach the second data protection principle that
personal data shall be obtained only for one or more specified and
lawful purposes, and shall not be further processed in any manner
incompatible with that purpose or purposes. Disclosure of information
concerning staff suspensions would be a further processing incompatible
with the specified and lawful purpose of investigation.

Your request for disclosure of information is therefore refused under
Section 17 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, relying on the
exemption referred to above. You have the right to ask for a review of
that decision and the Council's complaints procedure is available here
http://www.wirral.gov.uk/LGCL/100004/200...

I hope you have found this information of use
Kind Regards
Jane Corrin
Information Manager

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Good Morning,
The acting head of legal services at Wirral has reviewed the response
you were given to this enquiry in full and is satisfied that the answer
is factually correct and appropriate.
The Council believes, because of the very small numbers of staff
involved, it is difficult, if not impossible to detail the actions taken
to date and not identify the post holder/s and therefore the
individual/s concerned. I am sorry on this occasion I am unable to
supply the information to you.
Kind Regards
Jane Corrin
Information Manager
Wirral Council

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Good Morning,
This email receipts your mail below and your request has been passed on
to the appropriate officer.
Kind Regards
Jane Corrin

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