Nick said:
Noone has still responded to my point that under the Freedom of
Information Act the content of any email might have to be produced under
FoI. Indeed good policy is to have a rider to emails that any email sent
to the organisation might have to be produced as a result of an FoI
request.
My response to that would be that there are e-mails whose entire
contents are personal ie. that message to the wife to let her know what
time you'll be home for dinner; and there are e-mails sent in relation
to work matters which contain your personal comments. The first
category probably would be covered under the HRA, as you have a right to
privacy of correspondence even in the workplace. But as these e-mails
don't contain any information which is likely to be requested under FOI,
disclosure isn't actually an issue. The problems only start with the
second category. If in the course of your work, you encounter another
work colleague and criticise them in an e-mail, I don't see how that be
construed as "personal", because you wouldn't know that person if you
didn't work with them. Slating your work colleagues presents much more
of an issue if that person later puts in a "subject access request". So
I think the message shouldn't be "be careful what you say in e-mails"
because HRA Article 10 protects the individual's right to freedom of
expression. The message should be "don't say anything that you're not
prepared to stand by, or that you wouldn't say to the person's face"
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