11 August 2009
Dear Mr Simpson,
Thank you for your email of 14 July to the Department of Health requesting, under the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act, various details about swine flu. Your request has been passed to me for reply.
Specifically, you ask us for:
1. All communications between the Department and the World Health Organization (WHO).
2. Any internal document within the department or to other British government departments which questions the handling of this outbreak by the World Health Organization.
3. Current estimate on the cost to the UK of handling this outbreak so far.
4. How many airports in the UK operated or still operate screening checks for people arriving in the UK who may have swine flu.
5. Is this department capable of implementing full checks of people coming into the UK at airports and ports? Is there any guidance which states when this department would seek to have British borders and ports/airports closed to prevent further spread of the virus?
6. Finally, you would like to know how much money the UK gives to the WHO.
I will address each of your questions in turn.
1. Section 12 of the FOI Act allows public bodies to withhold information where the cost of compliance exceeds the appropriate limit of 3.5 working days or £600. We are not responding to this part of your request because it is deemed that it would take considerably more time and resources than is described as appropriate to deal with your request. You are welcome to make a more refined request, which is perhaps narrowed by timeframe or content, but we should also make you aware that the policy team which would deal with your request is already operating under very pressurised circumstances due to the ongoing pandemic and competing priorities.
2. Under Section 27(4), which relates to international relations, I am unable to confirm or deny whether the Department holds such documents. If any such documents were held by the Department, under Section 27(1)(b) and (c), the Department would withhold them as they would be likely to prejudice relations between the United Kingdom and any international organisation and the interests of the United Kingdom abroad. WHO is a UN organisation and any such information would therefore also be caught by Section 27(5) of the Act, which relates to information relating to any international agreement to which the UK is a party.
The Department recognises that there is a genuine and strong public interest in understanding the UK’s position on handling of the global pandemic. However, it is not in the public interest to compromise this Government’s ability to engage in and contribute effectively to ongoing negotiations on international handling of the pandemic.
It is in the public interest for these negotiations to take place away from the glare of publicity. Disclosing what may have been said may hinder the UK in the achievement of its policy objectives because it might make the negotiations more difficult if things which were understood to have been said in confidence are subsequently disclosed.
Disclosure might also lead to reduced candour between the parties which in itself may damage the outcome of the negotiations
3. The scope of your question is so wide that it is estimated that providing a meaningful response would exceed the appropriate limit of 3.5 working days or £600 as specified in section 12 of the FOI Act. You are welcome to refine your request and specify in which aspects of cost you are interested. However, it should be noted that the Department will not be able to respond on behalf of other Departments on issues which fall outside of its remit i.e. questions about the effect of the pandemic on the economy.
4. We have gathered the following information from the Health Protection Agency (HPA), whom you should contact directly if you have any further queries in this area using the following email address:
xxx.xxxxxxxxx@xxx.xxx.xx.
Initially, all airports with direct flights from Mexico were ready to have a health protection response for incoming travellers. The airports concerned were London Heathrow, London Gatwick, Birmingham, Manchester, East Midlands, Newcastle and Bristol. Very early on charter flights stopped operating at the regional airports with sustained health protection activity at Heathrow & Gatwick only, although such activity has now stopped there also. The health protection activity that was carried out was giving arriving passengers advice and handing out the Department of Health pandemic flu leaflet.
5. Here we have also gathered information from the HPA, whom you should contact directly if you have any further queries in this area using the following email address:
xxx.xxxxxxxxx@xxx.xxx.xx.
If by your question you mean a full health screening for each person attempting to enter the UK, the answer is that it would not be possible to carry out an activity of such scale without huge resources and enormous disruption for all travellers at airports.
You also ask whether there is any guidance relating to the closure of ports and airports. I can confirm that there is no such guidance. The consensus of expert scientific information, nationally and internationally, does not support such guidance. However, the National framework for responding to an influenza pandemic (published November 2007) had indicated final decisions on this issue would be taken in light of emerging expert advice at the time of the pandemic. The full publication is available online at:
www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_080734.
6. The UK government provides annual core funding to WHO. In 2008 this was £27million.
In addition the UK has:
• pledged £35million to the global effort to improve avian and pandemic preparedness;
• pledged a further £2million to the Global Pandemic Influenza Action Plan (GAP) to improve vaccine supply; and
• also set aside £5 million for WHO and £1 million for the UN Pandemic Influenza Contingency team to deal with the H1N1 pandemic.
If you have any queries about this response, please contact me. Please remember to quote the reference number above in any future communications.
I hope this reply is helpful. 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.xxIf you are not content with the outcome of your complaint, you may apply directly to the Information Commissioner’s Office (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:
Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Yours sincerely,
Colin McDonald
FOI Casework Adviser
Department of Health