Medical reports

The Access to Medical Reports Act 1988 gives individuals the right to see medical reports prepared by their GP, or any other medical practitioner responsible for their care, in connection with their employment. The Act says that:

• the employer must obtain the individual’s consent before seeking a report from their GP;

• the individual has the legal right to a copy of the report before it is forwarded to the employer and to query items in it; and

• if the doctor refuses to accept the employee’s objections, they should be appended to the report.

Medical information is sensitive personal data and the employer must comply with all the requirements of the Data Protection Act 1998 and Part 4 of the Information Commissioner’s Code of Practice: Information about workers’ health.

In particular, the Code says that information must be kept confidential and secure, should be relevant and accurate, and must be kept for no longer than necessary (for example, employers should have a policy in place requiring medical reports that are no longer needed to be shredded as confidential waste after a specific time period). Guidance, along with a copy of the Code, can be found at the Information Commissioner’s website at: http://ico.org.uk/Global/~/media/documents/library/Data_Protection/Detailed_specialist_guides/the_employment_practices_code.ashx.