Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust takes the confidentiality and privacy of your personal information very seriously. The trust receives information and when necessary, shares your personal confidential information in order to provide you with quality care and treatment.

Our Privacy Notice explains how information about you will be collected, legally processed and securely shared and stored and for how long the trust will keep your information. This Privacy Notice is a requirement of the current UK Data Protection legislation

Who is responsible for your personal information?

Every employee, agency, contractor, student and volunteer of the trust, as part of their contract, is personally responsible for ensuring the confidentiality and privacy of your personal information.

The following individuals have been appointed to ensure that your privacy rights are upheld:

  • Dr John Knighton, Caldicott Guardian 
  • Data Protection Officer – contact by email: iownt.phu.dpo@nhs.net

  • Dr Nikki Turner, Senior Information Risk Owner

FOI Remediation Plan

At Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust (PHU), we are committed to openness and transparency and we take our responsibilities under the Freedom of Information Act very seriously.

Over the past year, we have faced significant staffing challenges within our governance team. Combined with an increase in the number and complexity of FOI requests, this has made it difficult to respond to all requests within the required timeframe.

In March 2025, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) requested information from the us. On 20 May 2025, the ICO issued an Enforcement Notice requiring us to publish a plan to address all outstanding FOI requests.

This notice supports and strengthens the improvements we were already working towards.

We have developed and published a detailed FOI Remediation Plan, which sets out how we will:

  • Resolve all historic FOI requests by 1 December 2025
  • Increase staffing and improve internal processes
  • Provide training to strengthen skills across the team
  • Publish regular updates on our progress

You can view the full action plan and regular performance updates will be published on this page.

We are committed to restoring full compliance with the Freedom of Information Act and to handling all future requests in a timely, transparent and efficient way. We appreciate the support and oversight of the ICO as we carry out this important work.