General Medical Council

The complainant requested all the relevant recorded information held by the General Medical Council (‘the GMC’) that related to his complaints about it. Some of the information was the complainant’s own personal data and this was considered by the Information Commissioner (‘the Commissioner’) under the Data Protection Act. For the remainder, the GMC explained that it had already provided some information, but that the residue was exempt by virtue of sections 40(2) [third party personal data], 42(1) [legal professional privilege] and 31(1)(g) [prejudice to law enforcement]. During the course of the Commissioner’s investigation further parts of the withheld information were disclosed to the complainant. For the remainder, the Commissioner has decided that sections 40(2) and 42(1) were appropriately applied. He finds procedural breaches of sections 10(1), 17(1), 17(1)(b), 17(1)(c) and 17(3), but given the further disclosures, now requires no remedial steps to be taken in this case.