Assessing Health Priorites

Dear Ms Speers,

Thank you for your email of earlier today asking after a response to a
Freedom of Information (FOI) request which you have not yet received.

As the subject title of your correspondence (our ref: DE00000525395)
requested information under the FOI Act, and was issued from the
Whatdotheyknow.com website, it came initially to the Department’s FOI Team.
However, the FOI Act provides the right to ask for recorded information as
held by the Department of Health. As the questions you raised in your
correspondence asked for policy advice as opposed to the disclosure of
recorded information, it was deemed that your request fell outside the
scope of the Act to answer. Your correspondence was therefore passed to
the Customer Service Centre (CSC), which deals with general Departmental
correspondence which does not fall under either the FOI Act or the Data
Protection Act.

It is my understanding that you have written to the Department many times
about this issue before and had been advised by the CSC that any further
queries which did not raise new issues would be noted but may not receive a
reply. As the Department had no further information or advice in this area
which had not already been provided to you, it was decided that it would
not be appropriate to respond to your correspondence on this occasion. In
correspondence of 11 January this year (our ref: DE00000466525), you were
advised: ‘Whilst we will continue to note any further correspondence from
you about the suicide strategy, we will not provide a reply unless the
Department’s policy changes or further substantial information becomes
available.’

I hope that this goes some way to explaining why you have not received a
response to your correspondence. If you feel that you have been treated
unfairly, or have a complaint which you would like to make about the
service you have received from the Department, you can make that complaint
in writing to the following address:

Complaints Manager
Customer Service Centre
Department of Health
Richmond House
79 Whitehall
London
SW1A 2NS

Alternatively, you can submit your concerns via an online feedback form
available at the following address:
www.info.doh.gov.uk/contactus.nsf/memo?o.... Please title your email
‘For the attention of the Complaints Manager’.

Yours sincerely,

Aimee Gasston
Freedom of Information Team
Department of Health

"D. Speers"
<request-42303-ab
8f60ae@whatdothey To
know.com> FreedomofInformation/OIS/DOH@DOH
cc
19/08/2010 08:33
Subject
Re: Freedom of Information request
- Assessing Health Priorites

Dear Department of Health,

This request has not been acknowledged or responded to under the
legal terms of the Freedom of Information Act. A response was due
by 18th August and I need to now hear promptly.

Yours faithfully,

D. Speers

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Dear Ms Speers,

Thank you for your further email of 19 August. I have spoken to
colleagues in the Customer Service Centre and understand that your new
email raises issues also covered by other outstanding correspondence which
is currently being processed. I understand that you will receive a
response to these outstanding issues in due course.

With kind regards,

Aimee Gasston
Freedom of Information Team
Department of Health

"D. Speers"
<request-42303-ab
8f60ae@whatdothey To
know.com> FreedomofInformation/OIS/DOH@DOH
cc
19/08/2010 18:29
Subject
Re: Freedom of Information request
- Assessing Health Priorites

Dear Ms Gasston, Department of Health,

With genuine respect, my FOI request for information was not even
acknowledged, let alone responded to. My question did indeed raise
the subject of suicide indicators and as Japan include suicide
indicators as part of economic indicators, you may see how vital
some countries consider these. I am aware that my questioning on
this seems to fall on deaf ears. There appears to be no provision
by the Dept of Health to replace the indicators the Dept itself
consider vital indicators of possible significant system failure.
Can the DH address why they have withdrawn indicators they are also
supporting in Health Service Guidelines?

I also asked a question on what has replaced the Performance
Management responsibilities as bestowed on PCT and was there any
intention of transferring these responsibilities to GPs to ensure
services commissioned are "fit for purpose".
I asked can DH confirm if GPs will have the same statutory
responsibilities under Practice Based Commissioning?

Can this be responded to?

Yours faithfully,

D. Speers

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