Information request for our desk based telephones and mobile devices invoices for December 2014
I am writing in response to your Freedom of Information request dated 15 March 2015, which is a follow up to your last request about personal calls made on PHSO telephones. For this request you asked for a copy of our desk based telephones and mobile devices invoices for December 2014.
Please find attached a copy our invoice for our desk based telephones. The invoice is dated 15 January 2015 for December 2015 billings. We have redacted our customer information such as our account number, invoice number, GC reference number, and our service provider's banking details under section 31(1)(a) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA). Section 31(1)(a) FOIA is prejudice based exemption and applies where disclosure would, or would be likely to harm the prevention and detection of crime. We believe that if our customer details and service provider account details were released into the public domain it is very likely that we would be at risk of fraudulent activity.
Please also find attached a copy our invoices and bill summaries for our mobile devices relating to the period you asked for. Again we have redacted our account numbers and invoice number under section 31(1)(a) FOIA. We have also redacted the telephone numbers under section 40(2) FOIA as the information is third party personal data and there is no overriding legitimate interest in this disclosure. Please note blank pages have been removed from the records to reduce the size of the attachment.
For completeness and to set out this information in context, the excerpt below is from our ICT Acceptable Use Policy (ICT AUP) which deals with personal use of our ICT system which has been previously provided to you.
13 Personal use of the ICT system
13.1 All ICT systems are PHSO property and are intended for business use. However, PHSO has no objection to staff making reasonable and appropriate personal use of our systems, including web browsing, telephony and email. It will be for line managers to judge what is reasonable and appropriate, but excessive or other use which impacts on performance is clearly unacceptable.
13.2 Responsible personal use of our ICT systems is permitted, provided that it:
- does not interfere with job performance;
- is not for commercial or business gain;
- does not contravene any of PHSO's policies and guidelines;
- is not detrimental to PHSO in any way.
In addition to the ICT AUP, we have a Mobile Device Security Operating Procedure, which is signed by all users of PHSO mobile devices. At point 10 of the agreement states:
"You may make reasonable personal use of your device. This includes making voice and video calls and sending texts."
I hope the information is helpful.
FOI/DP Officer
Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman