1. Confidentiality and responsible information handling Legal and ethical considerations Brayne & Carr: Law for Social Workers: 10e Chapter 4

2. Lecture outline The ethical framework The legal framework –Common law duty of confidentiality –Statutory provisions –Human Rights Act 1998 –The balancing act Information legislation

3. The BASW code of ethics – Extracts from paragraph 4.17 (a) Respect service users' rights to a relationship of trust, to privacy, reliability, and confidentiality and to the responsible use of information obtained from or about them; (b) Observe the principle that information given for one purpose may not be used for a different purpose without the permission of the informant; … (g) Record information impartially and accurately, recording only relevant matters and specifying the source of information

4. Help in making difficult decisions Information Sharing: Practitioners’’ Guide Information Sharing: Further Guidance on Legal Issues Information Sharing: Case examples. –Ministry of justice

5. Human rights considerations Consider Articles: - 6 (right to a fair trial) - 8 (right to respect for family life etc) -10 (freedom of expression) Increasing salience of privacy –Peck v United Kingdom (2003) 35 EHRR 719

6. The common law duty of confidentiality Tortious duty owed by professionals Applies where information is –Confidential –Communicated in circumstances which would give rise to the obligation –Information used without authority Defences –Just cause or excuse –Acting in the public interest

7. Statutory provisions on confidentiality Duties of confidence –Abortion Act 1967 Duties to disclose –The Misuse of Drugs (Notification of and Supply to Addicts) Regulations 1973 Permissions to disclose –s.115 of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 Children Act 2004 –Information database - s.12 –Regulations to prescribe who must and who may disclose information – s.12(5)

8. The duty to keep confidences

10. Reasons to disclose information

12. Information legislation - the Data Protection Act 1998 Data controllers who process personal information must comply with a range of data protection principles Data can be disclosed only if conditions in Schedule 2 are met, and (b) in the case of sensitive personal data, at least one of the conditions in Schedule 3 is also met

13. Information legislation - Freedom of Information Act 2000 Statutory rights for those requesting non personal information Some exemptions from requirements of Act Schemes for publication of information

14. Information handling - issues for social workers Complex interface between Human Rights Act, common law on confidentiality and information legislation – see the Bichard report www.bichardinquiry.org.uk Does information sharing reduce risk? At what cost? What are the implications of contactpoint? See the comments in the Laming Report and the DCA guidance www.dca.gov.uk/foi/sharing/toolkit/lawguide.htm www.dca.gov.uk/foi/sharing/toolkit/lawguide.htm