Centre for Corporate Accountability challenges HSE over right to information
July 20, 2007
The Centre for Corporate Accountability (CCA) has asked the Information Commissioner - the UK’s official freedom of information watchdog - to review a refusal by the HSE to provide information to the charity on deceased workers.
The CCA, which provides information and advice on safety, law enforcement and corporate criminal accountability issues, has been monitoring workplace deaths since 2001, tracking how these deaths are dealt with by the investigation and prosecution bodies.
The charity says it is the only non-governmental body to undertake this work and the information is made available on its website.
The HSE has repeatedly refused to provide the CCA with names of those people whose deaths have been reported to it, even after the information was made public at the coroner’s inquest.
The charity says this makes tracking work-related deaths extremely difficult.
According to the CCA, the HSE said that "giving the names of the deceased would cause distress to their surviving family members, so contravening their rights under the European Convention on Human Rights, Article 8 (1)".
The Information Commissioner is asking the HSE to respond and will determine whether or not the safety body’s refusal is in breach of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
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