NHS West Sussex Clinical Commissioning Group – Complaint Upheld (United Kingdom, 2020)

The complainant has requested information to NHS West Sussex Clinical Commissioning Group (the CCG) relating to the job description of the officers commissioning of continuing health care for patients with Acquired Brain Injury, qualifications that are required fot the role and the standard contract used when commissioning the care. The CCG has withheld the job description under section 40 on the basis that it is the personal data of the post holder. There were several correspondence exchanges between two parties, in which the CCG did explain that there was only one person holding that post and the disclosure of the requested information would contravene the DP principles. The Commissioner had to decide if the CCG is entitled to withhold the job description under section 40. The Commissioner had to determined whether the requested information constitutes personal data, and if it is, it must establish whether disclosure of that data would breach any of the DP principles. The Commissioner’s decision is that the CCG is not entitled to withhold the job description under section 40. After having established that the requested information is personal data, (as there is only one person holding that post and the name of the individual is known) the Commissioner determined if the disclosure of the data would contravene the DP principles. As always, it considers the following three-part test (Article 6 GDPR) - i) Legitimate interest ii) Necessity and iii) Balancing tests. The Commissioner has established that there is a legitimate interest in the public understanding the role the CCG plays in providing services to vulnerable members of our society and examining its performance. As for necessity test, the Commissioner considers that there is a greater need to understand who is responsible for the individual elements of the process through which the care was organized and delivered. The provision of the job description would certainly assist the complainant in fo