Request ID: FOI-1745-2223 Date published: 10 November 2022
You asked
Can you provide me with the policies and protocols in reference to Occupational Health referrals, medical diagnosis and treatments and providing OH Reports to employees?
Can you also supply me with the following:
1. The number of referrals made to Occupational Health each year from 2014 to present date.
2. The number of referrals made to Occupational Health each year from 2014 to present date with written employee consent:
3. The number of referrals made to Occupational Health each year from 2014 to present date with verbal employee consent:
4. The number or referrals made to Occupational Health each year from 2014 to present date without employee consent:
5. The number of OH reports resulting from referrals each year from 2014 to present date which were sent to the manager/PMA/HR/GP and employee at the same time.
6. The number of OH reports resulting from referrals each year from 2014 to present date which were sent to the employee before it was sent to the manager/PMA/HR/GP
7. The number of OH reports resulting from referrals each year from 2014 to present date which were sent to the manager/PMA/HR/GP and not to the employee.
Can you provide me with this information on a aggregate monthly basis ie January 2014 - 5, February 2014 - 7 etc
We answered
TfL Ref: FOI-1745-2223
Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 20 October 2022, asking for information about occupational health (OH).
Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act and our information access policy. I can confirm that we hold the information you require.
1. The number of referrals made to Occupational Health each year from 2014 to present date.
Until 2021, OH received referrals in a variety of different formats (on paper, on emailed word documents etc) and therefore not easily searchable. They were stored in the employees’ paper records. In order to locate and retrieve this information someone would have to manually trawl through a large number of paper records going back to 2014, which would take a disproportionate amount of time and resources and would certainly exceed the ‘appropriate limit’ of £450 set by the Freedom of Information (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004.
Under section 12 of the FOI Act, we are not obliged to comply with a request if we estimate that the cost of determining whether we hold the information, locating and retrieving it and extracting it from other information would exceed the appropriate limit. This is calculated at £25 per hour for every hour spent on the activities described.
Since period 1 2021, when we started recording referrals electronically, we received 9,124 referrals.
2. The number of referrals made to Occupational Health each year from 2014 to present date with written employee consent:
Employee consent is not required in order for a manager to refer them to OH. The manager should inform the employee of the referral and the contents of the referral. Consent is required when the OH consultation takes place at which stage the clinician will explain to the employee what the report to their manager will say and the employee can decide whether to see the report at the same time as their manager, before their manager or withdraw consent for a report to be made.
Prior to the pandemic, consent in OH was undertaken on paper and as above it is no feasible to provide this information within the cost limit.
3. The number of referrals made to Occupational Health each year from 2014 to present date with verbal employee consent:
Since the pandemic, the majority of OH consultations take place remotely and therefore verbal consent is taken and documented. It’s not feasible to provide this information from 2014 within the cost limit.
4. The number or referrals made to Occupational Health each year from 2014 to present date without employee consent:
Please see answer to question 2.
5. The number of OH reports resulting from referrals each year from 2014 to present date which were sent to the manager/PMA/HR/GP and employee at the same time.
Since period 1 2021, a total of 6,375 reports were generated as a result of referrals. It’s not feasible to provide this information from 2014 within the cost limit.
6. The number of OH reports resulting from referrals each year from 2014 to present date which were sent to the employee before it was sent to the manager/PMA/HR/GP
Please see answer to question 5.
7. The number of OH reports resulting from referrals each year from 2014 to present date which were sent to the manager/PMA/HR/GP and not to the employee.
The employee will always receive a copy of their report resulting from a referral.
If this is not the information you are looking for, or if you are unable to access it for any reason, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to appeal as well as information on copyright and what to do if you would like to re-use any of the information we have disclosed.
Yours sincerely
Eva Hextall FOI Case Management Team General Counsel Transport for London
