The Information Commissioner has upheld a decision by a hospital Trust not to disclose a report requested under the Freedom of Information Act.
The Information Commissioner concluded that the public interest in withholding this information from the public is greater than the public interest in its disclosure. The Commissioner decided that if this information is released into the public domain it could adversely affect the ability of the Trust, and other NHS Trusts, to readily call on the best possible expertise to advise in the future. The Trust’s chief executive had stated that releasing the report would mean the Trust would face “severe and perhaps insurmountable difficulties in engaging independent experts to provide free and frank advice to the Trust in the future.”
The Trust relied on other exemptions which the Information Commissioner also upheld, concluding that much of the information relating to the doctor’s competence is already available from the General Medical Council’s investigation conducted in 2005. The Commissioner also considered that the release of the information would be unlawful as the Trust would be breaching the prior confidentiality agreement with the Royal College which provided the expert panel.
