Can We Share an Employee’s Health Information with The Public Health Agency?
Posted in : First Tuesday Q&A NI on 7 April 2020
Johanna Cunningham
Arthur Cox
Organisations are not prevented from sharing employees’ health information with authorities, such as the Public Health Agency, for public health purposes. This is in accordance with the lawful basis for processing under Article 9(2)(i) of the GDPR whereby processing special category data (e.g. health data) is permitted when it is necessary for reasons of public interest in the area of public health.
Furthermore, medical practitioners are able to disclose patient information to the Public Health Agency if they become aware or suspect someone has Covid-19. This is due to the implementation of the Public Health Notifiable Disease Order (Northern Ireland) 2020 which makes Covid-19 a notifiable disease.
More on Data Protection & Freedom of Information
- What factors do employers need to consider in relation to testing employees for Covid-19?
- Quiz: Are you Cyber-Aware Amongst COVID-19?
- 5 COVID-19 scams your organisation should be aware of (and how to prevent them)
- ICO Guidance On Covid-19 Workplace Testing
- Must employers still comply with the 30 day response timeframe for subject access requests during the COVID-19 pandemic?
Disclaimer:
The information in this article is provided as part of Legal-Island's Employment Law Hub. We regret we are not able to respond to requests for specific legal or HR queries and recommend that professional advice is obtained before relying on information supplied anywhere within this article.
Johanna Cunningham
Arthur Cox
The main content of this article was provided by Johanna Cunningham. Contact telephone number is Johanna Cunningham or email belfast@arthurcox.com
View all articles by Johanna Cunningham