The Local Authority (Overview and Scrutiny Committees Health Scrutiny Functions) Regulations 2002

Information to be furnished by local NHS bodies

5.—(1) Subject to paragraph (3), it shall be the duty of a local NHS body to provide an overview and scrutiny committee with such information about the planning, provision and operation of health services in the area of that committee’s local authority as the committee may reasonably require in order to discharge its functions.

(2) Where a local NHS body provides, or arranges for the provision of, or performs any management function in relation to, services to persons residing within the area of several local authorities, its duty under paragraph (1) shall be satisfied if it provides information to the joint overview and scrutiny committee of those authorities.

(3) Nothing in paragraph (1) shall require the provision by a local NHS body of—

(a) confidential information which relates to and identifies a living individual, unless at least one of the conditions specified in paragraph (4) applies; or

(b) any other information the disclosure of which is prohibited by or under any enactment, unless paragraph (5) applies.

(4) The conditions referred to in paragraph (3)(a) are—

(a) the information is or can be disclosed in a form from which the identity of the individual cannot be ascertained; or

(b) the individual consents to the information being disclosed.

(5) This paragraph applies where—

(a) the prohibition on the disclosure of information arises because the information is capable of identifying an individual; and

(b) the information is or can be disclosed in a form from which the identity of the individual cannot be ascertained.

(6) In a case where the disclosure of information is prohibited by paragraph (3), the overview and scrutiny committee may require the person holding the information to put the information in a form from which the identity of the individual concerned cannot be identified in order that the information may be disclosed.