CONFIDENTIALITY
STATEMENT ON POLICY AND PRACTICE

Statement | Exceptions | Practice & Procedure | Training of Volunteers

Introduction

The purpose of this Statement is to ensure that services affiliated to Victim Support Scotland receive clear guidance about their responsibilities in relation to confidentiality. Issues relating to policy and practice are both covered in the Statement. Affiliated services are required to comply with this Statement so that our service to victims will be credible, consistent and reliable.

1 - STATEMENTS OF PRINCIPLE

1. Every volunteer visitor has a personal duty to respect the victim's privacy and trust and to seek to uphold each victim's dignity.
2. Every volunteer visitor must take care to comply with the service's policy on confidentiality and should not give greater assurances on confidentiality than the policy envisages.
3. Information on victims is collected for the purpose of assisting the victim and belongs to the service. Information identifying individuals should be restricted to the minimum number of people, strictly on the basis of the need to know, to safeguard confidentiality.
4. All Victim Support Services have a responsibility to hold in trust any information received from:
   1. the victim, and his/her family
   2. the referral agency
   3. another Victim Support Service
   4. any other source directly concerning the victim.
5. No information supplied by the sources outlined above may be divulged to any third party unless:
   1. the person or agency supplying the information consents to such disclosure or
   2. there are exceptional circumstances justifying such disclosure (see Section 2) or
   3. the information does not identify individual people, either directly or indirectly or
   4. the information is disclosed for research purposes as approved by the local Management Committee and by the Research Advisory Group of Victim Support Scotland.
6. Where victims refer themselves to Victim Support and have not reported the crime, there is no legal obligation to advise the police about such cases. Notification should only take place where it is either mandatory or is considered appropriate in terms of paragraph 2(B) below.
7. Victim Support will not be seen as offering an independent credible service unless victims feel their trust is respected, they are respected and can, therefore, have confidence in the service. Referral agencies also need to feel able to trust that the service will treat the information passed on to it by the agency in a responsible way.

A Mandatory

1. Victim Support Services must report to the police if the crime is one which could be classified as one of terrorism under Section 18 of the Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary Provisions) Act l989 (see Appendix A) or where they are required under Section 172(2) of the Road Traffic Act 1988 to disclose any information on the identity of a driver.
2. It is an offence:
   • to positively conspire and assist in the commission of a crime
   • to deliberately attempt to obstruct or confuse police enquiries.
3. There is a legal obligation for any person summoned to give evidence in either a civil or criminal case to do so, to answer any questions, and to produce any specified documents. The consent of any donors of information is not required but it may be appropriate to advise those concerned so that they can consider an application to the Court to have the order set aside.

1. Victim Support Services must consider carefully the need to disclose confidential information the possible risk of serious harm to that victim, or to another person or persons.
2. Every reasonable effort should be made to secure the victim's consent to such disclosure first, or failing that, to inform the victim that disclosure to a third party will be necessary.
3. Where such a need is established, disclosure should be limited as much as possible, both in terms of the information passed thereby and the third parties to whom it is disclosed. Such third party must be the relevant and appropriate authority, for instance, the police, the prosecutor, the social work department.

A Visit

1. The visitor should inform the victim, where appropriate, that information given to him or her will be shared with the service coordinator and that the visitor does not operate independently from the service.
2. Every reasonable effort should be made to ensure that the visit takes place in circumstances conducive to privacy for the victim. If this is not so, the visitor should propose a more suitable time or place. Services should try and make arrangements in advance so that interviews can take place out with the victim's home in such cases.
3. The visitor should not seek personal information which is irrelevant to the provision of support for the victim, while recognising that sometimes the victim values the opportunity to divulge personal matters. Occasionally the victim may provide information or make a suggestion which, though not especially relevant to his/her situation, may be appropriate for consideration by the service or the organisation in relation to general policy and practice.
4. Except in special circumstances, visitors are discouraged from making a written record during the visit. Such an informal record should avoid any form of personal identification and should be confined to factual statements as far as possible.

B Management Committee Involvement

It will not be necessary for any Management Committee member, other than the coordinator or visitors dealing with the case, to see Volunteer Record Forms or discuss identified victims in most cases. However, there may be exceptions and the Management Committee needs to devise a procedure to meet these exceptional cases. Some exceptions might be where:

1. the coordinator considers that he/she needs to seek advice in relation to a particular case
2. a visitor has particular concerns which he/she believes have not been satisfactorily handled by the coordinator
3. any other service member is concerned about the conduct of a particular case
4. complaints about VS involvement in a particular case have been made
5. access is sought to service records or to victims for research purposes.

In the first instance such matters should be considered only by designated office bearers. These designated office bearers should not be representatives of statutory agencies, the police, social work department, medical services or other organizations which may have a specific obligation to disclose. Services must be clear about the dual responsibility which such representatives have to the service and to the agencies they represent. The coordinator, visitor or service member who has been involved with the case should brief the office bearers as appropriate.The designated office bearers should take responsibility for deciding if the matter needs to be brought to the attention of the police, social work, or medical representatives on the Management Committee. Services must be aware that they cannot ensure that confidential information disclosed to the full Management Committee will remain within the service as certain representatives may have an obligation to alert their own agency where particular circumstances come to their attention, e.g. a suspected case of non-accidental injury to children. A note of the steps taken and decisions reached must be kept in the confidential records of the service.

  C Exceptions

It is not possible to list all the circumstances in which disclosure to the statutory authorities may be required to safeguard visitors, victims, their families, or other people. However, the following examples may be useful:

1. a visitor/coordinator/service member has experienced or is at risk of some injury or harm through involvement with a particular victim, e.g. a visitor tells the coordinator that a victim he has visited is a drug-addict who has threatened him with physical violence because the visitor knows about the addiction.
2. a victim or his/her family has suffered or is in danger of suffering serious injury or harm, e.g. a victim of extortion who has not reported the crime to the police has already been attacked by a member of the protection racket and is anticipating further attacks, including the possibility of fire raising.
3. a member of the public is likely to be the victim of serious injury or harm, e.g. a victim has become very vindictive and has obtained an offensive weapon to protect himself, which he says he will use against anyone who trespasses on his property.

1. Issues relating to confidentiality must be explicitly dealt with in basic training, including the way in which the visitor introduces him/herself to the victim.
2. Coordinators' induction training must include specific consideration of their role in connection with confidentiality and necessary disclosure.
3. Management Committee members must be fully informed of the responsibilities in relation to confidentiality.
4. Individual victims must not be named when cases are being discussed at Volunteer Meetings.
5. Every Victim Support Service must include a review of issues relating to confidentiality in ongoing training each year.

APPENDIX A

Extract from: C.4 Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary Provisions) Act l989

Information about acts of terrorism:

18.(1) A person is guilty of an offence if he has information which he knows or believes might be of material assistance:

a) in preventing the commission by any other person of an act of terrorism connected with the affairs of Northern Ireland or

b) securing the apprehension, prosecution or conviction of any other person for an offence involving the commission, preparation or instigation of such an act

(i) in England and Wales, to a constable
(ii) in Scotland, to a constable or the procurator fiscal or
(iii) in Northern Ireland, to a constable or a member of Her Majesty's Forces

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Confidentiality Policy

Confidentiality Policy