10 June 2009

DE00000412842

Dear Mr Brooks,

Thank you for your further email of 11 May requesting, under the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act, minutes from the Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council (CNHC) board meeting held on 18 September 2008 as well as information relating to progress made by the Council.  Your email has been passed to me for reply.

The Department of Health is aware that a meeting of the CNHC Board was held on 18 September 2008 .  However, the Department does not request minutes of Board meetings from the CNHC, and it is the decision of the CNHC Board whether or not to publish the minutes of the meetings on their website. 

You specifically mention the minutes of the Board meeting that was held on 18 September 2008 .  The CNHC existed in shadow form during 2008 and, as such, their meetings were held in private.  Officials have asked the CNHC about the minutes which appeared on the CNHC website and then disappeared.  They have been informed that the minutes were placed on the website by a member of staff, no longer with the organisation, without the approval of the Board.  The decision was therefore made to remove them. 

As you are aware, there was a subsequent Board decision to publish the decisions made at their meetings on their website from May 2009, which I understand are now available.

Turning to your request for information relating to progress made by the Council, I can confirm that the Department does hold relevant information.  However, as this material is potentially subject to one or more of the exemptions that exist under the FOI Act and remains under deliberation, we are unable to respond to this point in full at the present time. 

The Freedom of Information Act obliges us to respond to requests promptly, and in any case no later than 20 working days after receiving your request. However, when a qualified exemption applies to the information and the public interest test is engaged, the Act allows the time for response to be longer than 20 working days, and a full response must be provided within such time as is reasonable in all circumstances of the case.

We do, of course, aim to make all decisions within 20 working days, including in cases where we need to consider where the public interest lies in respect of a request for exempt information. However, in this case we have not yet reached a decision on where the balance of the public interest lies .

We estimate that it will take an additional 20 days to take a decision on where the balance of the public interest lies.   Therefore, we plan to let you have a response by 8 July 2009 .  If it appears that it will take longer than this to reach a conclusion, we will keep you informed.

A specific exemption which we believe may apply in relation to your request is section 40(3)(a)(i), which concerns personal information.  

I hope this reply is helpful.

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,

David Winks
Freedom of Information Team
Department of Health