Detectives are “assessing” whether a health board which failed to provide information about 56 serious incidents at its hospitals was guilty of any “criminality”.

Rab Wilson, who worked for NHS Ayrshire and Arran, submitted a request for copies of all “critical incident” reviews and significant “adverse event” reports, which are used by the board as a way of improving safety and patient care and minimising risk.

Mr Wilson turned to information commissioner Kevin Dunion after the health board told him it did not hold any critical incident review plans, apart from one it had already given to him.

But when the commissioner investigated, 56 such plans were found on a computer drive.

A report on the case said: “This decision involves perhaps the most serious catalogue of failings to search for and find information within the scope of a request that the commissioner has ever had to deal with.”

A police spokeswoman said today: “Strathclyde Police is in receipt of information supplied by Mr Wilson and is currently assessing it to identify whether or not there is any criminality.

“The assessment process will be completed at the earliest opportunity.”

The Daily Record newspaper reported the catalogue of incidents included 20 patient deaths, three missed chances to diagnose cancers and two cases where psychiatric patients killed or tried to kill relatives.

The newspaper also said that the creation dates of computer files containing eight action plans came in the days before they told Mr Wilson they did not exist.

In February, health secretary Nicola Sturgeon ordered the health board to “urgently review” its freedom of information policy.

She has also asked Healthcare Improvement Scotland to urgently audit all relevant clinical governance procedures within NHS Ayrshire and Arran.

A Scottish government spokeswoman said that Ms Sturgeon was “very clear” that all NHS boards are expected to comply fully with freedom of information laws at all times.

She said: “It is not acceptable for any organisation to not comply with this legislation.

“NHS boards are responsible for monitoring and acting on adverse events and every board should have an appropriate system in place to record these using local data coding and definitions.

“We expect all boards to fully implement any actions which are identified as a result, and communicate these to staff where appropriate.”

At the time, the health board’s chief executive John Burns issued a statement which said there had “never been any intention to deliberately withhold information”.

He said today: “NHS Ayrshire & Arran has complied fully with the Scottish Information Commissioner’s Decision Notice of February 2012.

“We have nothing to add pending completion of NHS Healthcare Improvement Scotland’s independent review, which we welcome.”

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