ET- Documents marked Official Sensitive

[CivilServiceET]

Unfortunately after over twenty years in the civil service I am, with regret, having to make a claim of disability discrimination at an employment tribunal. I am a litigant in person and preparing the bundle of papers for disclosure. I have noticed that during some of the email exchanges about my position (referrals to CTS etc) HR have at a late stage added an OFFICIAL-SENSITIVE marking to their emails to me . Does this mean that I can't disclose the emails to the Tribunal? The information is about me and I would like it to be disclosed but dont want to do anything I shouldn't . I called security who told me to look at the guidance online- have done that but am not any clearer (it's very vague) . Just wondered if anyone knew? The only sensitive details are about me/my health - not about policy etc. I would really appreciate any advice. Thank you.

It's a long time since I worked in the civil service, but my understanding is that the security marking "OFFICIAL - SENSITIVE" indicates that information, classified at the OFFICIAL level, requires extra care in handling due to its sensitivity and potential harm if compromised. It's a caveat applied to OFFICIAL information, NOT a separate classification, and is used to reinforce the "need-to-know" principle. This means that access to the information should be strictly limited and should only be shared with those who have a legitimate reason to know.

In your case, the tribunal do have a legitimate reason to know. However, I am no expert - hopefully someone with more recent experience will be along soon to clarify.

Sorry - meant to add - good luck x

Official Sensitive cannot be sent via the internet. Can only be sent internally. Presumably they didn't send this to your private email?

Was expecting details of a short tear jerking little guy.....

No, such markings do not prevent emails being disclosed. If they are trying to reach a settlement with you and say that an email or letter is "without prejudice", you can't introduce it into evidence. Anything else can be disclosed to the tribunal.

Thank you for your responses. The guidance isn't very clear and I didn't want to get into trouble. I started the email exchanges - some from my personal accounts and they have, after a lengthy exchange over a few months, replied in the final responses adding an official sensitive marking. The only information that could relate to is my personal details eg that I had a disability and was being referred to CTS. So I thought it was probably fine to disclose but didn't want to do the wrong thing. The guidance is so unclear. Thanks for your replies.

This is incorrect. I work on a defence contract, information sharing with civilian email addresses is common practice.
HR are able to send to your personal email address if required.

Official Secret can only be sent through pre-approved networks but not restricted to internal networks only.

As an aside do you think staff survey results could be disclosed to a tribunal? In my business area the discrimination scores are nearly three times the CS average. Again these documents are marked official sensitive. I wasn't planning on disclosing them due to the classification but they would help my case. Just wondered what your views were on these? Thank you.

Yes, you can put this in your evidence to the tribunal. Whether you should is another matter. The tribunal will be more interested in evidence that you have been discriminated against than in evidence that suggests people in your area think they have been discriminated against.