Budget for operation of the hospital helipad

Dear Derby Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust,

1 What is the annual budget for operation of the hospital helipad?

2 What has been the actual operating cost for the past year?

For both these figures, please include indirect costs such as
inspection, licensing, inspection,management overhead and
maintenance, as well as direct costs such as labour and
consumables. Please provide sub-totals for such items.

Yours faithfully,

Richard Frey

Dear Derby Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of
Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Derby Hospitals NHS
Foundation Trust's handling of my FOI request 'Budget for operation
of the hospital helipad'.

In refusing this request, Mrs Maine makes no reference to any of
the exemptions defined in the FOI legislation.

Instead, she claims:

That the budget and costs associated with the operation of the
helipad forms a small part of the Trust's PFI agreement.

That all costs associated with the helipad are subsumed and cannot
be separately identified.

The first statement appears likely to be true but irrelevant.

The second statement appears unlikely to be true given that the
trust publishes annual accounts, and at the very least, has access
to the detailed financial data from which those accounts are
derived.

It also seems very unlikely the trust would be able to comply with
the financial reporting and accounting standards set by its
regulator without access to accurate plans, budgets and cost data.

The text of this refusal seems oddly vague and incomplete. For
instance, there is no reference to the existence or otherwise of
budgets.

This letter appears to be a refusal,but the word itself does not
appear. It is as if Mrs Maine could not quite bring herself to
utter the dreadful word. Perhaps a paragraph is missing.

I request that this decision be reviewed.

Yours faithfully,

Richard Frey