FOI220693: Sexual misconduct by staff

Released 4 January 2023

Request:

Please note there are six parts to my request, however if answering all six parts pushes my request over the cost limit, please just respond to parts 1, 2 and 3.

1. Between 1 September 2018 and 1 September 2022, how many complaints of sexual misconduct were made by patients, visitors and Trust employees against staff members in your NHS Trust. The definition of sexual misconduct includes, but is not limited to, inappropriate comments; inappropriate touching, sexual harassment, sexual assault, indecent exposure, and rape. 
2. How many of the complaints were upheld?
3. What was the outcome of the upheld complaints? Outcomes can include but are not limited to verbal warning, written warning, suspension, or dismissal. If it does not push the request over the cost limit, please can you also include:
4. The nature of the allegation
5. The gender of the complainant
6. The gender of the staff member 

Further correspondence received from applicant on 1 December 2022:

I would like to update my request with a slight change to the date range, so that it focuses on the financial years 2017/18 and 2021/22, not calendar years. I have highlighted the updated date range in the request text below.

Assistance provided to applicant under Section 16 [Duty to assist] on 1 December 2022:

Firstly, University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust has been in operation since 1 April 2021, following the merger of Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust and Western Sussex Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. 

Since you have requested information for periods of time both before and after the merger, it will be necessary for us to break down our information by each legacy Trust and University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust where appropriate. Can you confirm you would like information for all three Trusts in this context?

Please note that this may have a bearing on the amount of information we can provide within the cost limit governed by section 12 provision of the FOIA. It will take our staff significant time to identify and compile this information for the three Trusts over the last 5 years relevant to your request.

Further information about the Trust’s hospitals can be found on our website.

The legacy Trusts used different Datix reporting systems which recorded data against different definitions. This is reflected in the information we are able to provide.  We will not necessarily be able to report according to the criteria you have requested. 

For example, at Worthing and St. Richard’s Hospitals, data relevant to “sexual offences” can be reported where associated with staff and patients, but not those incidents relevant to visitors. 

For the Princess Royal Hospital and Royal Sussex County Hospital sites, data relevant to “sexual harassment”, “sexual abuse” or “sexual assault” can be reported, however, details about whether staff, patients, or visitors were involved in only recorded within free text fields in Datix.

The provision of information for these sites, including whether staff were formally disciplined, would require a manual audit of available records and section 12 provision [cost limit] of the FOIA would be applicable. University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust is implementing a new Datix system which should improve our ability to report on this activity.  In the interim, we regret any inconvenience these circumstances may cause.

Questions 4-6 of your request seek quite specific details relevant to these incidents, which when combined and disclosed into the public domain, could lead to the identification of those patients and staff involved. Information that would likely identify an individual person (including patients, staff, visitors, etc.) is exempt from disclosure under section 40(2) [personal information] exemption. The engagement of s.40(2) in such cases would be considered absolute and not subject to further public interest considerations.

Finally, you have instructed “…if answering all six parts pushes my request over the cost limit, please just respond to parts 1, 2 and 3”. Requests in this format are not considered valid under the terms of the FOIA. According to guidance issued by the Information Commissioner’s Office, requests defined by the Section 12 cost limits are invalid under Section 8(1)(c) because their scope is determined by the extent of the record search the authority can carry out within those limits, rather than the distinguishing characteristics of the information itself. 

Revised request received 2 December 2022:

Thank you for your detailed response. In light of this, please find my revised request below.

I am unconvinced Section 40(2) would be applied to the final three questions, because someone’s gender does not make them immediately identifiable, so have kept these questions in the request.

I would like to receive the following information per financial years from 2017/18 up to and including 2021/22. I understand that this Trust was recently established.

I would be grateful if you could provide me with the following information for Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust and Western Sussex Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust when the time frame requested pre-dates the merger.

1. How many complaints of sexual misconduct were made by patients, visitors and Trust employees against staff members in your NHS Trust. The definition of sexual misconduct includes, but is not limited to, inappropriate comments; inappropriate touching, sexual harassment, sexual assault, indecent exposure, and rape.
   
   2. How many of the complaints were upheld?
   
   3. What was the outcome of the upheld complaints? Outcomes can include but are not limited to verbal warning, written warning, suspension, or dismissal
   
   4. The nature of the allegation
   
   5. The gender of the complainant
   
   6. The gender of the staff member

Information disclosed:

Please note University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust was formed on 1 April 2021, with the merger of Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust and Western Sussex Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Information related to the financial years 2017/18 – 2020/21 is relevant to the legacy Trusts, while information for 2021/22 is relevant to University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust.

The Trust has a duty to safeguard the confidentiality of our patients and staff under Data Protection legislation. Where data is relevant to 5 or fewer people, this is generally considered the threshold at which data must be anonymised.

On the basis that you are seeking very specific information relevant to these incidents (e.g. outcome and nature of complaints, gender of those involved, data broken down by financial year, etc.), due to the small number of incidents involved it was not possible to anonymise our data in the format requested and therefore it is not appropriate to release information in this format under the FOIA. This information is considered personal information and is exempt from disclosure under section 40(2) [personal information] exemption of the FOIA.

The engagement of s.40(2) in this case is considered absolute and is not subject to further public interest considerations.

With the above in mind, and to ensure our data was both meaningful and met public interest considerations, we have provided our information broken down into longer periods and broader themes where possible. 

Information relevant to Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust and Western Sussex Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust for the period 2017 to 2018 and 2020 to April 2021 is as follows:

1. There were 16 complaints that met the criteria of your request reported over the period 2017 to 2018 and 2020 to April 2021.
2. Of these 16 complaints, 10 were upheld.
3. The 10 complaints that were upheld resulted in summary dismissal or final written warnings.
4. We are unable to provide a breakdown of the specific nature of these allegations on the basis that the numbers become too small to anonymise – see explanation above. We were unable to anonymise this information in a way that would be meaningful. This information is considered personal information and is exempt from disclosure under section 40(2) [personal information] exemption of the FOIA.
5. In all 10 cases where the complaint was upheld, the complainants were female.
6. In all 10 cases where the complaint was upheld, the alleged perpetrators were male.

Information relevant to University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust for the period 2021 to 2022 is as follows:

For questions 1 to 6 inclusive, there were ≤5 complaints that met the criteria of your request reported over the period 2021/22. We are unable to provide any additional information relevant to this activity. The number of incidents is very small and we are unable to sufficiently anonymise this information in a way that would ensure that the patients and staff involved could not be identified. Since this is relatively recent information, it further supports the withholding of this information at this time. Should this information be requested in the future and can be anonymised as presented for the legacy Trusts above, we will be happy to reconsider disclosure at that time. For now this information is considered personal information and is exempt from disclosure under section 40(2) [personal information] exemption of the FOIA.