Dear NHS Acute Hospital Trust,

I am a journalist who is investigating issues around incidents involving patients and Hospital Security Staff. This request has been placed with all NHS Acute Hospital Trusts in the UK.

Your response will be consolidated with all others to be used as part of a report that has been commissioned by a broadcaster.

Using the Freedom of Information Act, please could you provide the following data:

1/ do you employ your own security staff or are they supplied by an external provider?
2/ over the past three years, year on year, how many incidents of alleged physical and verbal abuse against patients by security staff have been logged by your Trust?
3/ over the past three years, year on year, how many of these incidents were alleged to have taken place in Accident and Emergency?
4/ are all these incidents logged and, if so, what system does your Trust use - eg: DATIX
5/ how were these incidents described; eg: physical, verbal, restraint etc ...
6/ year on year, and for the past three years, how many of these incidents were investigated?
7/ year on year, and for the past three years, what were the outcomes of these investigations?

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Yours faithfully,

Matt O'Donoghue