Health director removed over email leak

Published Thursday, 19 July 2012
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A health board chief sacked by Edwin Poots after information was leaked to third parties is to take legal action over her dismissal, she told UTV.

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Lily Kerr was a director of the Health and Social Care Board, until she was let go following an investigation commissioned by the Health Minister.

Mrs Kerr, who has also been removed from her position as chair of the Northern Ireland Social Care Council, is said to have emailed documents "without authority" in May of this year.

But she said while one set of the documentation was marked private and confidential, it "had all clearly been in the public domain".

"I acted in good faith and did nothing that could create mistrust or deceit and at all times acted in the interest of the public," she explained, adding that she was "extremely annoyed and angry" at what has been done.

Mrs Kerr described the actions of Minister Poots as "disproportionate, unfair and coloured by the fact that I'm a particularly strong woman trade union official and had been in the past".

But the minister said he dismissed Mrs Kerr after a leaks investigation produced "very clear evidence that very significant leaks came from that source".

He said the information shared by was marked private and confidential and was being dealt with by the Health and Social Care Board.

"When you sit on a board with other people it's absolutely important that you ensure that your integrity and the integrity of everybody on that board stands together," he told UTV.

Unfortunately she failed on very clear governance issues and regrettably we had no other choice but to ask her to step down and remove her from the board.

Edwin Poots

Trade union Unison has condemned Mr Poot's actions as "anti-trade union, anti-democratic and not in the public interest".

The union claims the documents Mrs Kerr shared were already in the public domain.

"Unison already had them from the health trust employers as part of the collective bargaining process," a statement read.

"In fact the union had been running workshops on the Trust Delivery Plans since last March. They are public, they are not a secret."

"In our view the issue is straightforward. Lily Kerr has done nothing wrong," Patricia McKeown said.

"We share her concern that decisions in our health service are increasingly being taken without a public presence at meetings rather than in the public, open and transparent manner which was promised.

"In our view Poots is engaging in anti-trade union action."

Lily Kerr was previously a senior representative at Unison and was awarded an MBE for services to industrial relations last year.

Mrs Kerr has been a member of the HSC board, which is responsible for commissioning services, since it began, and was appointed chair of the Social Care Council for a four-year term from December 2010.

© UTV News
Comments Comments
2 Comments
JAE in Fermanagh wrote (308 days ago):
Lily Go for it and take them for every £
Alan Murray in Wales wrote (309 days ago):
I don't pretend to know the details of this case, but I do know Lily Kerr. I had the privilege of working with her when I was in a leadership position and she was a senior trade unionist. Lily and I worked together in an exemplary way, despite inevitable differences of opinion, and she never gave me any reason to doubt her integrity.
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