By GEORGIA EDKINS, SCOTTISH ASSOCIATE EDITOR FOR DAILY MAIL AND THE MAIL ON SUNDAY
A health board has accused Scotland’s information tsar of being ‘emotional’, ‘selective’ and ‘not professional’ after he condemned its decision to withhold costs associated with a landmark ‘single sex spaces’ employment tribunal, MailOnline can reveal.
NHS Fife bosses were left fizzing with rage at David Hamilton, the Scottish Information Commissioner, after he ruled the board had acted unlawfully by rejecting requests to reveal its legal bill for the Sandie Peggie case, internal documents show.
Staff annotated a copy of Mr Hamilton’s final judgement, handed down in May, with ‘whingeing’ comments blasting the Commissioner’s decision.
And in a huge data breach, they mistakenly sent the diatribe to a mother who had requested a copy of her poorly son’s medical records.
Vicki Tocher, whose battle to get her youngster Isaac, 8, treatment from NHS Fife made headlines last week, said she was ‘shocked’ to receive the annotated document rather than her son’s records.
She said: ‘This unacceptable large data breach caused unnecessary stress…This incident shows NHS Fife’s complete disregard for patients, staff, and the Scottish Information Commissioner’s Office.’
Meanwhile the Scottish Information Commissioner, Mr Hamilton, condemned the health board for ‘wasting time’ compiling the broadside against him rather than fulfilling its legal obligations to review its responses to FOI requests.
He said: ‘I’m aware that an NHS Fife staff member’s personal commentary on the case was mistakenly disclosed into the public domain.
NHS Fife staff were furious when they were told the board had acted unlawfully by not releasing the costs of a tribunal brought against it and trans medic, Dr Beth Upton (pictured)
The health board branded Scottish Information Commissioner, David Hamilton, ’emotional’
‘I am confident, however, that it is unlikely to reflect the final view of the health board itself.
‘My real concern is that valuable time has been wasted instead of expediting the additional actions I have required in that decision.’
The tribunal relates to Sandie Peggie, 50, who was suspended by the health board after she challenged the presence of Dr Beth Upton, born a biological male, in the female changing rooms at Kirkcaldy’s Victoria Hospital.
She is arguing that having to change next to the trans medic broke the Equality Act.
However, NHS Fife, which is using taxpayer money to defend itself in court, as well as Dr Upton and Dr Kate Searle, a third ‘respondent’ in the case, sparked fury when it refused to reveal how much public money it was using on the case in response to a freedom of information request submitted by this newspaper.
Following a protracted transparency battle, the Scottish Information Commissioner said it had acted unlawfully and demanded it issue a new response by July 14.
Sandie Peggie was suspended by NHS Fife after she challenged the presence of Dr Upton in the women’s changing room at Kirkcaldy’s Victoria Hospital
NHS Fife wanted to withhold information about how much taxpayer money it was spending to defend itself, Dr Upton and Dr Kate Searle at the tribunal
A spokesman for NHS Fife said at the time that ‘NHS Fife notes the report from the Scottish Information Commissioner and intends to comply fully with its decision notice’.
But internal NHS Fife documents show an information governance officer hit out at the judgement.
She said that it was ‘not professional’ of Mr Hamilton to lump information requests made by MailOnline and two other applicants together.
She went on to complain that Mr Hamilton had referenced the case had been brought against the health board as well as ‘a specific employee’ – Dr Upton – claiming that ‘individual’s (sic) should not be discussed’ and said it was ‘non-factual’ because it also involved another employee, Dr Searle.
The worker said that despite the fact that NHS Fife was using taxpayer money to fund the defence – which hard-working families may have presumed was going into the running of the health service – legal costs were ‘personal’ to both Dr Upton and Dr Searle.
And in response to a line in the judgement which read that ‘the Commissioner is frustrated – a feeling no doubt shared by the Applicants’ at the health board’s poor handling of the information requests, the officer mocked him by writing: ‘The Commissioner should not be bringing an emotional statement into the review.’
The health board claims the taxpayer money it is spending to defend Dr Upton is ‘personal’
She added he was ‘being selective’ and was making assumptions about NHS Fife’s conduct.
Scottish Conservative equalities spokeswoman Tess White said: ‘The petty and evasive behaviour of NHS Fife demonstrates once again how out of touch they are with mainstream public opinion.
‘Scots taxpayers have a right to know how much of their money was squandered by the health board on enforcing the SNP’s dangerous and unlawful gender self-ID policy.
‘Instead of apologising to Sandie Peggie and complying fully with the Information Commissioner’s request, NHS Fife appear to be in denial about the Supreme Court ruling, and still stubbornly convinced that they were right to deny women access to single-sex spaces.
‘And that’s before we come to the rank incompetence of them disclosing their whingeing and evasion to a patient’s family.’
A spokesman for the health board said it ‘fully respects the role and authority of the Scottish Information Commissioner and continues to accept the Scottish Information Commissioner’s decision in this matter’.
