06/02/2012
DE00000673831
Dear A Cuerden,
Thank you for your request of 21 January 2012 under the Freedom of
Information Act (2000). Your exact request was:
“1. The amount of money paid to the CNHC,
2. What conditions are attached to the money (be specific)?
3. Under what conditions will the money be stopped and the
project considered a failure (if any)?
4. Details of communications from politicians and, if possible,
royalty, to the Department of Health related to the CNHC.”
I can confirm that the Department holds information relevant to your request.
1)
Since the CNHC was set up, the Department of Health has provided funding
as follows:
£293,496 in 2007/8/9 (including start up costs)
£409,300 in 2009/10
£127,748 in 2010/11
2)
The Department funded the CNHC between 2007 until March 2011 and has
been self-financing since 1 April 2011. There is therefore currently no funding
to the CNHC to which conditions are attached.
3)
As stated above, funding from the Department of Health has now ceased.
The project to establish CNHC aimed to establish an independent body which
would independently set standards for a range of complimentary therapies
and establish a voluntary register of complimentary therapists meeting its
standards.
4)
To comply with this request as it is currently framed would exceed the cost
limit as set out in Section 12(1) of the Freedom of Information Act. Section 12
allows public bodies to refuse requests where the cost of compliance exceeds
the appropriate limit. This is set at 3.5 working days or £600 for central
Government. This represents the estimated cost of one person spending 3.5
working days in determining whether the Department holds the information,
and locating, retrieving and extracting that information.
A preliminary search of our electronic filing system suggests that we hold
more than 1600 documents which could potentially hold information sent to
the Department from politicians relating to the CNHC. In particular, we hold
the following files on our system:
• Complimentary and Natural Healthcare Council, 9 files containing 811
documents
• Foundation for Integrated Health, 7 files containing 639 documents
• CAM Therapies: Voluntary Registration, 1 file containing 203
documents
If you were to refine your request for information within more specific margins,
for example, by a specific subject area or by time frame, then we may be able
to continue processing your request. However, I cannot guarantee that
Section 12 or any other exemptions will not apply to any information
requested.
It may be useful in refining your request to know that communications
between a public authority and the Royal household are exempt from
disclosure under Section 37(1) of the Freedom of Information Act. Section 37
is an absolute exemption and therefore not subject to a public interest test.
If you have any queries about this email, please contact me. Please
remember to quote the reference number above in any future
communications.
If you are dissatisfied with the handling of your request, you have the right to
ask for an internal review. Internal review requests should be submitted within
two months of the date of receipt of the response to your original letter and
should be addressed to:
Head of the Freedom of Information Team
Department of Health
Room 317
Richmond House
79 Whitehall,
London
SW1A 2NS
Email: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xx.xxx.xxx.xx
If you are not content with the outcome of your complaint, you may apply
directly to the Information Commissioner (ICO) for a decision. Generally, the
ICO cannot make a decision unless you have exhausted the complaints
procedure provided by the Department. The ICO can be contacted at:
The Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Yours sincerely,
Jamie Scott
Freedom of Information Officer
Department of Health
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xx.xxx.xxx.xx