Dear G Lawrence

SUBJECT: Freedom of Information Request

Thank you for your email of 4 June 2009, in which you asked for the following information from the Ministry of Justice (MOJ).

    Please will you email me in Excel spreadsheet format a list of the
     prisons in England and Wales identifying by individual prison:

     1/ which Electronic Health Care Record software is used in the
     Prisons' Medical Centres,

     2/ which PCT is responsible for that prison,

     3/ the Escort and Bedwatch costs reimbursed by the PCT to each
     prison in the last Financial Year,

     4/ the Name and Address of the organisation or company
     subcontracted by the PCT to provide Primary healthcare to the
     prison in the current Financial Year,

     5/ the current inmate population of each prison.

Your request has been passed to me because I have responsibility for answering requests which relate to offender health and has been handled under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA).

Under section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act, the Ministry of Justice is not obliged to comply with any information request where the prescribed costs of supplying you with the information exceeds £600. The £600 limit applies to all central government departments and is based on work being carried out at a rate of £25 per hour, which equates to 3½ days work per request. Prescribed costs include those which cover the cost of locating, extracting and retrieving information, and preparing our response to you. They do not include considering whether any information is exempt from disclosure, overheads such as heating or lighting, or disbursements such as photocopying or postage.

We hold the information in which you are interested but have estimated that the cost of answering your entire request would exceed the £600 limit and we are therefore unable to comply with it. Although your request would at present be too costly to answer, if you refine it so that it falls under the cost limit we will consider it further.

In order to provide you with the information that you have requested a policy officer would be required to contact each PCT to gather information on their current healthcare providers.

You may wish to narrow the scope of your request in order to try and bring it within the cost limit, by being more specific about which information you wish to receive, including any dates or periods of time which are relevant. For example, in order to try and bring the scope of this element of your request within the appropriate limit, you may wish to seek information in relation to a particular region within the country, or a particular primary care trust.

Nevertheless, I am pleased to be able to provide some of the information you have requested on a discretionary basis, outside of the terms of the Act.

You can find the current inmate population of each prison at the Department's website free of charge at the following internet address:

http://www.hmprisonservice.gov.uk/resourcecentre/publicationsdocuments/index.asp?cat=85

Regarding parts 1 and 2 of your email, I attach an excel spreadsheet comprising two worksheets.

Worksheet 1 details the electronic health care record software in each prison. The Department of Health commissioned NHS Connecting for Health (NHS CFH) to deliver the first national clinical IT system across the entire Prison Service estate. The Prison Health IT programme will encompass all public sector and contracted-out prisons in England. Welsh prisons are to be included after further discussion. Where the spreadsheet states `outside deployment' this refers to the prisons that are not currently engaged with the Prison Health IT programme but will be included as part of the national roll-out in the future.

Worksheet 2 details primary care trusts and the prisons they hold commissioning responsibility for.

Please note that for both these spreadsheets the information relates to England only. For information on prisons in Wales please contact Cardiff and Swansea Local Health Boards.

Cardiff Local Health Board
Trenewydd
Fairwater Road
Llandaff
Cardiff CF5 2LD

Tel: 029 2055 2212
Fax: 029 2057 8032
Safe Haven Fax: 029 2055 5546

Email: [email address]

Swansea Local Health Board - City and County of Swansea

Civic Centre

Oystermouth Road

Swansea

SA1 3SN

Tel: 01792 636000

Fax: 01792 636 340

Web: www.swansea.gov.uk

Regarding part 3 of your email, the Department of Health has already provided this information to you on 3 June 2009 in response to your FOI request of 18 May 2009.

Regarding part 4 of your request for the names and addresses of the organisation or company subcontracted by the PCT to provide primary healthcare to the prison in the current financial year, I am sorry to inform you that I will not be able to answer this request. NHS Primary Care Trusts have been responsible for commissioning health services in publicly run prisons in England since April 2006 and Local Health Boards have held the commissioning responsibility for healthcare in all state prisons in Wales since April 2006. Commissioning and provision varies across England and Wales depending on local commissioning decisions.

In order to provide you with the information that you have requested a policy officer would be required to contact each PCT to gather information on their current healthcare providers. As explained at the beginning of this letter to do this would exceed the cost limit as specified in section 12 of the FOIA.

As part of our obligations under the FOIA, the Ministry of Justice has an independent review process. If you are dissatisfied with this decision, you may write to request an internal review. The internal review will be carried out by someone who did not make the original decision, and they will re-assess how the Department handled the original request.

If you wish to request an internal review, please write or send an email to the Data Access and Compliance Unit within two months of the date of this letter, at the following address:

Data Access and Compliance Unit

Information Directorate

6th Floor

Post point 6.25

102 Petty France

London

SW1H 9AJ

e-mail: [email address]

If you remain dissatisfied after an internal review decision, you have the right to apply to the Information Commissioner's Office under Section 50 of the FOIA. You can contact the Information Commissioner's Office at the following address:

Information Commissioner's Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

Internet: https://www.ico.gov.uk/Global/contact_us.aspx

Yours sincerely

Debbie Goulding

Offender Health

Department of Health