- Date released
- 28 May 2020
- Request number
- FOI202004008
- Release of information under
- Freedom of Information Act 2000
Information requested
Under the Prescribed Persons (Reports on Disclosures of Information) Regulations the ONR must act on any third party disclosures made about malpractice.
I would like to receive a list of all disclosures from 2015 (or as far back as your records go - if they do not go back to 2015).
For each disclosure I would like to request:
- Date of disclosure
- Action taken
- Impact on ONR
I would like all the information to be as up to date as possible.
If possible could the information be supplied in Excel format.
For each disclosure I would also like to request:
- Summary of disclosure
Information released
In relation to the parts of your request concerning dates of disclosure and action taken, we can confirm that this information is already available in our Annual Reports and Accounts (ARAs) which are laid in Parliament and published on our website. As our ARAs are in the public domain, these parts of your request therefore fall within Section 21 of the FOIA: information reasonably accessible to the applicant by other means (ICO Guidance). This is an absolute exemption and so does not require the public interest test.
We established our whistleblowing policy in 2015-16. From then on, the relevant ARAs contain the records for that reporting year:
- ONR ARA 2015/16 – pp 66-67
- ONR ARA 2016/17 – p 53
- ONR ARA 2017/18 – p 93
- ONR ARA 2018/19 – pp 97 – 98
The ARAs can be found on our website.
These reports meet our reporting obligations under Regulation 5 of The Prescribed Persons (Reports on Disclosures of Information) Regulations 2017 in as far as we are able to report in order to protect the confidentiality and identity of whistleblowers.
In relation to your request for information on impacts on ONR, we have interpreted this to refer to the information outlined in Reg 5 (c)(ii) of The Prescribed Persons (Reports on Disclosures of Information) Regulations 2017 in “how workers’ disclosure have impacted on [ONR’s] ability to perform its functions and meet its objectives during the reporting period”. This information is provided in the ARA references set out above, and therefore we also consider this part of your request to fall within the Section 21 exemption of the FOIA.
In relation to your request for a summary of each disclosure, I confirm that under Section 1 of the FOIA, we hold the information related to your request. However, we are refusing this part of your request under Section 44 of the FOIA: Prohibitions on disclosure (ICO Guidance).
Section 44 (1)(a) FOIA exempts information if its disclosure is prohibited under any enactment. This means information is exempt if its disclosure is prohibited by other legislation such as Acts of Parliament or Statutory Instruments. Such provisions are referred to as statutory prohibitions or statutory bars and they prevent public authorities from disclosing specific types of information. This is an absolute exemption and so does not require the public interest test.
Providing summaries of each whistleblowing disclosure alongside the additional information requested could disclose information which should be protected under the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998. Descriptions of events, precise dates and locations may lead to the potential identification of whistleblowing individuals who have the right not to be subjected to any detriment by their employer done on the ground that the worker has made a protected disclosure.
Exemptions applied
Section 44
PIT (Public Interest Test) if applicable
N/A