Introduction to the Publication Scheme

This publication scheme is a complete guide to the information routinely published by Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust. It is a description of the information about our Trust which we make publicly available.

We regularly review and monitor the scheme. It is important to us that this scheme meets your needs and we have designed it to be a guide so that you can find and access information about the Trust easily.

Under Section 19 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, the Trust has a legal duty to adopt and maintain a publication scheme. The purpose of the Act is to promote greater openness by public bodies.

The Freedom of Information Act does not change the right of patients to the protection of their patient confidentiality in accordance with Article 8 of the Human Rights Convention, the Data Protection Act 2018 and at common law.

Maintaining the legal right to patient confidentiality continues to be an important commitment on our part. To help with this, we have appointed a Caldicott Guardian - who has the responsibility to ensure the protection of patient confidentiality throughout the Trust. Our Caldicott Guardian is:

Dr Will Orr
Acting Chief Medical Officer
Royal Berkshire Hospital - Level 4, Main Entrance
Craven Road
Reading
RG1 5AN

Information management

Information falling into the classes shown in the section below, will be retained in line with the Trust's retention and disposal schedules.

Information, which is not required for the business purposes of the Trust, is stored at the Trust or at a place of deposit approved by the Lord Chancellor for the purpose of holding public records.

Classes of information

The Trust's commitment to publish information excludes information that can legitimately be withheld under the exemptions set out in the Freedom of Information Act.

The two main reasons why individual classes are subject to exemptions include the protection of commercial interests and personal information under the Data Protection Act 2018. This applies to most classes within the Publication Scheme.

The Trust will state how you can obtain the information outlined within each class. This will be either via the Trust web site or as a hard copy or other media as stated within each class. The publications are all free unless otherwise indicated within each class.

The information is grouped into the broad categories shown below:

Optional class: archive deposits

At present the Trust does not have an archive deposit. As records are placed in deposit, details will be shown in this section.

The Trust adheres to the NHS Records Management Code of Practice regarding retention of records.