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Health Bill

moved Amendment No. 34:"Page 44, line 4, after ““to”” insert—" ““(a) ”” The noble Lord said: My Lords, the amendments in this group all relate to the disclosure of information obtained through the use of the powers set out in this part. Clause 49 gives the Secretary of State and the National Assembly for Wales the power to produce a code of practice that will clearly detail the rights and responsibilities of those exercising the power and those subject to it, to ensure that the powers are used appropriately. Amendments Nos. 34 and 35 will ensure that we can make provision in the code of practice about the procedures that authorised officers disclosing information under Clause 50 must follow, specifically where requests are made to disclose information that identifies individuals. It is intended that most disclosures will be made with the consent of the relevant individual. Where that is not the case, the authorised officer will be obliged under the code to consider whether the information can be disclosed in an anonymised form. It is expected that the majority of disclosures under the powers will be made in such a way that individuals cannot be identified. Clause 50 outlines the circumstances in which information obtained using the powers set out in this part can be disclosed by, or on behalf of, the appropriate national authority. Information obtained by the use of the powers must not be disclosed unless it is required for the specific conditions set out in the Bill, or the patient has given their consent. Amendment No. 36 to subsection (3) is intended to ensure that disclosure can also be made in accordance with an order of a tribunal as well as a court as currently drafted. Amendment No. 37 to subsection (5) further restricts the onward use or further disclosure of information disclosed under Clause 50(3), so that information disclosed under Clause 50(3) must not be used or further disclosed by any other person except under the conditions in this subsection. If information is incorrectly disclosed, the person could be committing a criminal offence as outlined in Clause 53. Under the provision, the restriction on the use or further disclosure of the information applies only to the person to whom the information is disclosed. Clause 51 requires that certain information obtained from personal records be classified as protected information for the purposes of disclosure for proceedings. This is required if the identity of the individual can be ascertained from the information itself, or if the discloser has reasonable cause to believe that this information, taken with other information obtained and disclosed in accordance with these clauses, could reveal an individual’s identity. Amendment No. 38 replaces the previous clause and seeks to ensure that the provision on protected information applies to civil and relevant disciplinary proceedings and is not limited to criminal proceedings. Under Section 51(2), the discloser of protected information must take all reasonable steps to ensure that all protected information is disclosed only to someone to whom it is necessary to disclose it in conjunction with the proceedings. Under the code of practice, an obligation will be imposed on the discloser to mark the information as protected. Protected information cannot be disclosed in evidence unless the proceedings are wholly in private or the court or tribunal, in which the proceedings may be partly or wholly in public, has given its permission. The court or tribunal may agree to this if it is satisfied that it is in the interests of justice that the information is disclosed. In considering such an application, the court or tribunal must also consider whether, in the interests of the individual concerned, the hearing ought to be wholly or partly in private. The court can grant permission on such terms as it thinks fit. The protected information need not be disclosed in its original form; for example, the court may agree that sensitive details requiring protection should be blocked out—known as redact—or that documents can be summarised. Clause 53 provides offences relating to the disclosure or use of information obtained by the use of these powers. Amendment No. 39 is a consequential amendment designed to ensure that the correct subsection of the amended Clause 51 retains the offence previously drafted. I am grateful to the noble Earl, Lord Howe, for his amendment which was tabled in Grand Committee and which was aimed at tightening the safeguards around the disclosure of personal information so that information is not disclosed to any person to whom it is not necessary to disclose it. That amendment gave us pause for thought, and this package of amendments aims to respond as robustly as possible to this important issue. I beg to move.