Access to Medical Reports Act 1988
| Year | 1988 |
Access to Medical ReportsAct 1988
1988 CHAPTER 28
An Act to establish a right of access by individuals to reports relating to themselves provided by medical practitioners for employment or insurance purposes and to make provision for related matters.
[29th July 1988]
Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—
1 Right of access.
1. It shall be the right of an individual to have access, in accordance with the provisions of this Act, to any medical report relating to the individual which is to be, or has been, supplied by a medical practitioner for employment purposes or insurance purposes.
2 Interpretation.
(1) In this Act—
‘the applicant’ means the person referred to in section 3(1) below;
‘care’ includes examination, investigation or diagnosis for the purposes of, or in connection with, any form of medical treatment;
‘employment purposes’, in the case of any individual, means the purposes in relation to the individual of any person by whom he is or has been, or is seeking to be, employed (whether under a contract of service or otherwise);
‘health professional’ has the same meaning as in the Data Protection (Subject Access Modification) (Health) Order 1987 ;
‘insurance purposes’, in the case of any individual, means the purposes in relation to the individual of any person carrying on an insurance business with whom the individual has entered into, or is seeking to enter into, a contract of insurance, and ‘insurance business’ and ‘contract of insurance’ have the same meaning as in the Insurance Companies Act 1982 ;
‘medical practitioner’ means a person registered under the Medical Act 1983 ;
‘medical report’, in the case of an individual, means a report relating to the physical or mental health of the individual prepared by a medical practitioner who is or has been responsible for the clinical care of the individual.
(2) Any reference in this Act to the supply of a medical report for employment or insurance purposes shall be construed—
(a) as a reference to the supply of such a report for employment or insurance purposes which are purposes of the person who is seeking to be supplied with it; or
(b) (in the case of a report that has already been supplied) as a reference to the supply of such a report for employment or insurance purposes which, at the time of its being supplied, were purposes of the person to whom it was supplied.
3 Consent to applications for medical reports for employment or insurance purposes.
(1) A person shall not apply to a medical practitioner for a medical report relating to any individual to be supplied to him for employment or insurance purposes unless—
(a) that person (‘the applicant’) has notified the individual that he proposes to make the application; and
(b) the individual has notified the applicant that he consents to the making of the application.
(2) Any notification given under subsection (1)(a) above must inform the individual of his right to withhold his consent to the making of the application, and of the following rights under this Act, namely—
(a) the rights arising under sections 4(1) to (3) and 6(2) below with respect to access to the report before or after it is supplied,
(b) the right to withhold consent under subsection (1) of section 5 below, and
(c) the right to request the amendment of the report under subsection (2) of that section,
as well as of the effect of section 7 below.
4 Access to reports before they are supplied.
(1) An individual who gives his consent under section 3 above to the making of an application shall be entitled, when giving his consent, to state...
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