This is an HTML version of an attachment to the Freedom of Information request 'Payroll Data Quality - North Middlesex University Hospital'.



 
 
 
 
D Spratt  
Information Governance
 
Stella House, Goldcrest Way 
Newburn Riverside 
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx  
Newcastle Upon Tyne 
 
NE15 8NY  
Our ref: 6621 
 
Tel: 0191 2035352 
 
Fax: 0191 2645281 
Email: xxxxxx.xxxxxxxxxxx@xxx.xxx  
Website: www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk  
 
Date: 17 January 2017 
Dear D Spratt, 
 
Freedom of information request  
 
I am writing regarding your request for information, which I received on 16 December 
2016.  In that request, you asked us for the following: 
 
‘Please provide copies of all correspondence, communications, emails, telephone notes, 
documents, and on-line data, between the NHSBSA and the North Middlesex University 
Hospital NHS Trust (NMUH) between April 2013 and March 2016, in respect of payroll 
errors and corrections, problems with data quality, incomplete/inaccurate information or 
late submission of data, and any other payroll matters which NHSBSA had to take 
corrective action or educate NMUH over. 
 
Please provide the same categories of information as detailed above that were shared 
between NHSBA and NMUH’s payroll provider, Equiniti. 
 
This is not a request for any confidential information on individual employees. I simply 
require non confidential (if necessary, anonymised) information regarding:- 
• Payroll 

errors 
• Payroll 
corrections 
• 
Problems with data quality 
• 
Incomplete information  
• Inaccurate 
information 
• 
Late submission of data 
• 
Other payroll matters which NHSBSA had to take corrective action on or educate 
NMUH over.’ 
 
I can confirm that the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) holds information 
meeting the description specified in your request. 
 
Number of Late/Non-Payments 
 
The NHSBSA’s finance team has confirmed that for the time period quoted in your 
request, the particular trust in question did not have any late or non-payments. 
 

 

 
 
Correspondence 
 
Enquiries could be sent to North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust (NMUH) from 
any team within NHS Pensions if information was required for any transaction. 
 
E-mails or communications are not held centrally or by employer. Any communication with 
NMUH to query inaccurate or incomplete data (or other relevant information) would be 
held on the individual member EDM record. 
 
This would mean that to respond to this FOI we would need to visit the individual record for 
all members with a period of employment with NMUH between April 2013 and March 2016 
and review all communication to assess if this was with NMUH and if the reason for the 
query was within the remit requested above. We would then have to collate and 
anonymise the data. 
 
We have run a query and identified 4384 members with an employment between 1 April 
2013 & 31 March 2016. I estimate the time that this would take as follows; 
 
Average time per 
Hours required 
member 
10 minutes 
730 
15 minutes 
1096 
20 minutes 
1461 
 
As you can see, even with a conservative estimate of 10 minutes per member, it would 
greatly exceed 18 hours to determine if we hold the information, then locate, retrieve and 
extract the information if it is held. 
 
Data errors and non-updated records are reported to employers through employer error 
handling in Pensions Online and employers are expected to monitor and resolve the data 
errors allocated to them. The Management Information available on data is limited and we 
only have the volume of errors on hand at any given point in time, by employer (i.e. errors 
on hand at 07/04/13 = 181, at 06/04/14 = 212 ) but we do not know how many have been 
cleared and how many are new errors created in the period.  We can also give the split 
between employer allocated and NHS allocated however, not all data errors reported are 
due to incorrect data, they may just require a check on member status, eligibility etc or be 
something the employer could not have avoided such as an overlap with another 
employer.  
 
Again, the only way to identify communication with NMUH over data errors is through the 
individual EDM records. 
 
Therefore, I estimate that the cost of complying with your request would exceed the non-
central Government limit of £450. The limit has been specified in The Freedom of 
Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004 and 
represents the estimated cost of one person spending 18 hours in determining whether the 
NHSBSA holds the information, and locating, retrieving and extracting the information.  
Under Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act, the NHSBSA is not obliged to comply 
with your request and I will not be processing your request further. 
 

 

 
 
You may wish to request this information directly from NMUH, who will only hold pension 
information about its own staff. They can be contacted at the following e-mail address: 
 
xxxxxx.xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxx.xxx
  
 
Please note that your request and our decision will be published on our Freedom of 
Information disclosure log at: 
 
https://apps.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/FOI/foiRequestDetail.do?bo_id=6621  
   
Your personal details will be removed from the published response. 
 
If you are unhappy with the service you have received in relation to your request and wish 
to make a complaint or request a review of my decision, please write within 6 months of 
the date of this letter to:  
 
Chris Gooday 
Information Governance Manager 
NHS Business Services Authority 
Stella House 
Goldcrest Way 
Newburn Riverside Business Park 
Newcastle upon Tyne 
NE15 8NY  
 
Details of how we will handle your review request are available on our website at: 
 
http://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/Documents/NHSBSACorporatePoliciesandProcedures/DPRe-
usePSIEIRandFOIInternalReview.pdf  
 
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. Please note that generally, the 
ICO cannot make a decision unless you have exhausted the NHSBSA’s complaints. 
 
The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: 
 
Information Commissioner’s Office 
Wycliffe House 
Water Lane 
Wilmslow 
Cheshire 
SK9 5AF 
 
Tel:  01625 545 745 
Fax: 01625 524 510 
Email: xxxxxxxxx@xxx.xxx.xxx.xx 
 
If you have any queries about this letter, please contact me.  Please quote the reference 
number above in any future communications. 
 

 


 
 
Yours sincerely 
 
 
 
Chris Dunn 
Information Governance Assistant