Information request relating to the personal use of our telephone devices
Further to your email of 11 February 2015, I am writing in response to your Freedom of Information request. I have responded to your questions below.
1. The PHSO policy of allowing (or not) employees to make personal phone calls on PHSO telephone.
I can confirm members of staff are able to use our ICT system for personal use, which includes using PHSO telephone devices, provided they adhere to our ICT Acceptable Use Policy (ICT AUP). Please find below the excerpt from point 13 of the policy which deals with personal use of our ICT system:
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.
With regard to mobile devices, 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.
2. Any monitoring procedures in place. Especially those which ensures that employees are not making long, personal phone calls abroad.
It may be helpful if I first explain PHSO is responsible for looking into complaints about Government bodies and the Health Service in England. We can receive complaints from individuals anywhere in the world provided they have used a service falling within our remit; as such there will be instances where we will contact individuals abroad by telephone.
Turning to your question, we have contracts for both our desk based telephones and mobile devices, as such most of the calls we make (including calls to international numbers) are inclusive of the contracts. On a monthly basis we receive high level itemised invoices from both providers, which we will use to monitor to identify any exceptions.
3. How many employees have been warned about making unnecessary personal phone calls on PHSO equipment in the last year?
I can confirm no member of staff has been given a warning or disciplined for using PHSO telephones for personal calls.
4. Are phone calls abroad logged and monitored by the PHSO, since cases are almost always UK centred? And employees ever charged for personal phone calls abroad?
As explained at question 2 we receive high level monthly invoices from our providers which we monitor. However, we do not have our own itemised log for calls made on our desk based telephones or mobile devices.
With regard to desk based telephones, we only have 15 telephone extensions which allow calls to be made to international numbers. The total number of calls made to international numbers is included in the call summary of the monthly invoice we receive from our provider.
All our mobile device bills are itemised but not to the level that they provide a list of all calls made and the numbers they were made to. Where calls fall outside the contract minutes allowance (this may include calls to international numbers) the total amount of minutes used will appear on the monthly invoice from our provider.
Due to the low volume, duration and cost of calls which fall outside of our contract allowances, I can confirm there have been no instances to where we have asked staff to reimburse PHSO for call charges.
5. If employees are still allowed to make personal phone calls on PHSO equipment, has there been a estimate or costing of how much this perk is costing the taxpayer?
No.
6. If the PHSO is considering the removal of this perk, if it still exists.
We are not aware of any intended changes to our current policy.
7. To what country telephone destinations abroad has the PHSO made telephone calls in one month ...say in December 2O14? How many calls abroad were made?
In December 2014, PHSO staff made 28 international phone calls from desk based telephones, for a total time of 94 minutes, at an additional total cost of £1.16 over our normal monthly line rental. On receipt of the invoice, due to the low time and cost we considered that further investigation into the cost was disproportionate. The invoices we receive from our provider do not include the call destinations or the numbers called and as such we do not hold this information.
In the same period, PHSO staff made calls (on mobile devices) outside of the contract minutes allowance, totalling 134 minutes (£21.63) – this may have included calls to international numbers. We are unable to provide you with the destinations of any international calls that may have been made as we do not hold that information. This is because the invoices we receive from our provider do not include the call destinations or the numbers called.
I hope the information is helpful.
Yours sincerely
FOI/DP Officer
Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman