Civil Service - ET : advice on Protective Markings

[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.

I’m pretty sure official sensitive should be used for all HR/people related correspondence that contains sensitive data (health data for example). It doesn’t make it not discloseable.

It means it’s personal data. You can disclose to ET.

OFFICIAL-SENSITIVE just means personal data. You can disclose it because it’s your personal data.

Sensitive means that it has a particular sensitivity, that it is not for public release and should also have some additional control - treated under a ‘need to know’ basis

It is dependant on the department, but Official sensitive is best used with a suffix as guidance on the type of sensitivity - in this case I would expect Official sensitive personal
as the sensitivity is that it contains your personal information.