Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to increase disclosure to families involved in complaints on disciplinary procedures within the NHS.

The Department does not have plans to increase disclosure to families involved in complaints on disciplinary procedures within the National Health Service. Disciplinary procedures including disciplinary investigations are internal matters between an employee and employer. This information is of a confidential and sensitive nature and disclosure of any details to a third party would be in breach of the Data Protection Act 2018. Any exceptions where disclosure may need to be considered would have to be in line with the Data Protection Act and would normally require the consent of the individual involved.

The Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service has produced guidance on the handling of information obtained as part of an investigation and can be found at the following link:

https://archive.acas.org.uk/media/1043/Discipline-and-grievances-at-work-The-Acas-guide/pdf/DG_Guide_Feb_2019.pdf