Board committee papers

The Trust's key committees are

• Audit committee
• Quality and Safety committee
• Charity committee

The Trust will publish the agendas and minutes for these committees.  Reports discussed at the meetings will be provided on request unless a relevant Freedom of Information Act exemption applies, for example:

Section 22 (information intended for future publication) sets out an exemption from the right to know if the information requested is scheduled to be published at a future date

Section 30 (criminal investigations) creates an exemption for information:

• which is or has been held for the purposes of a criminal investigation
• which is or has been held for criminal proceedings conducted by a public authority
• which was obtained or recorded for various investigative functions from confidential sources and relates to those confidential sources.

Section 31 (law enforcement) creates an exemption from the right to know if releasing the information would or would be likely to cause significant harm to the purposes of law enforcement, taxation, and various types of regulatory activity as defined in the section.

Section 40 (personal information) sets out various exemptions from the right to know for information that is personal data protected by the Data Protection Act.

Section 43 (commercial interests) sets out an exemption from the right to know if:

• the information requested is a trade secret
• release of the information is likely to prejudice the commercial interests of any person. (A person may be an individual, a company, the public authority itself or any other legal entity.)

The Trust also has a Remuneration and Terms of Service Committee. Most of the business of this committee is confidential because it deals with the terms and conditions of service of Directors and senior managers and is therefore exempt under Section 40. Information that is suitable for publication will be reported through a report to the Trust Board.