Our ref: DE00000456220

 

26 November 2009

 

 

 

Dear Mr Brooks,

 

Thank you for your email of 3 November 2009 requesting, under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA), copies of all reports sent by the Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council (CNHC) to the Department of Health in the last six months. Your email has been passed to me for reply.

 

Please find attached four progress reports, which have been sent to the Department by the CNHC from July to September.  I understand, however, that you have already received the reports dated June 2008, November 2008 and May 2009 in response to your previous Freedom of Information request of 11 May 2009 (our reference DE00000412842). 

 

In addition, I have redacted information, which is considered to be “personal data” under the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA).  This includes personal data about officials below Senior Civil Service ( SCS ) level and CNHC employees whose names and contact details are not already in the public domain, which is exempt from disclosure pursuant to Section 40(2) of the FOIA. Section 40(2) exempts personal information from disclosure if the requested information relates to someone other than the requestor, and if disclosure of that information would, amongst other things, contravene one of the data protection principles in Schedule 1 of the DPA. In this case, I confirm that disclosure would contravene the first data protection principle of the DPA, which provides that personal data must be processed fairly and lawfully.    

 

Since the identities of the named individuals employed by CNHC are not in the public name, we consider that disclosure of these details would be unfair in accordance with the data protection principles.

 

By way of further explanation, we protect the identities of Department of Health officials below SCS level since these members of staff are not normally responsible for projects and policies of sufficiently high profile to merit public interest in knowing their identities.  Accountability for such projects and policies is at the SCS level, where there are mechanisms in place to hold the SCS individuals to account.  Therefore, we consider that the disclosure of personal data of the type you have requested for staff below SCS level would also be unfair in accordance with the data protection principles. 

 

I hope this reply is useful.  If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact me.  Please remember to quote the reference number 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’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,

 

Himesh Chavda

Freedom of Information Officer

Department of Health