Health Minister Correspondence

The request was successful.

Dear Department of Health (Northern Ireland),

I would ask that this letter is accepted as a Freedom of Information request.

Please provide a copy of a letter dated 30/06/2015 issued by the Health Ministers Private Secretary under reference Cor/1051/2015.

In addition please also provide:

1) a copy of the letters, to which the Health Minister's Private Secretary was responding to
2) a copy of two letters addressed to the Health Minister dated 6/7/2015 (namely a letter from a supplier and a letter from Department Business Innovation and Skills)

Please acknowledge receipt of this Freedom of Information request.

Yours faithfully,

Ed Robb

McCann, John (DOH), Department of Health (Northern Ireland)

2 Attachments

Ed

We have received your Freedom of Information request and I attach your
acknowledgement letter and a Public Information Leaflet.

John McCann
Information Management Branch
Department of Health
Tel: 02890 528218

John McCann
Information Management Branch
DoH
Tel: 02890 528218

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Dear McCann, John (DOH),

My FoI request refers.

Having initially failed to provide a prompt reply to my request the Department by then failing to provide a complete response within the days allowed by statute has gone on to breach the statutory obligations imposed by statute.

Trusting this delay is in no way down to the Department's attempting to delay disclosure of information which could/may have the potential to embarrass both the Department and a former Health Minister.

In the absence of an immediate response this failure will be drawn to the attention of Minister Swann.

Yours sincerely,

Ed Robb

Dear McCann, John (DOH),

No doubt you are fully aware that by failing to provide the information requested the Department is in breach of its statutory obligations under the Freedom of Information legislation.

Unlike my other unanswered (FoI) request, where the Department is also in breach of its statutory obligations, the delay is not being explained. This suggests the Department has probably located the document in question but is perhaps seeking to delay disclosure on the basis that the content of the document has the potential to embarrass both the Department and a former Health Minister.

The Departments cavalier approach to its statutory obligations leaves questions both of oversight and governance for the current Health Minister to answer.

Since Denis Healey's "Rule of Holes" is clearly at play here I will await the Department's final responses before inviting others to scrutinise its handling of this request.

Yours sincerely,

Ed Robb

McCann, John (DOH), Department of Health (Northern Ireland)

Ed

I have passed your e-mail to the relevant business area.

John McCann
Information Management Branch
DoH
Tel: 02890 528218

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Dear Department of Health (Northern Ireland),

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Department of Health (Northern Ireland)'s handling of my FOI request 'Health Minister Correspondence'.

The Department's response to this FoI request is overdue and despite two follow-up communications no explanation for the delay has been forthcoming. This failure leaves the Department in clear breach of Section 10 of the Freedom of Information legislation.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/h...

Yours faithfully,

Ed Robb

DoH FOI, Department of Health (Northern Ireland)

Mr Robb

A review can only be carried out on a decision that has already been issued.

I have forwarded you e-mail to the relevant business area to ask about the reply.

John McCann
Information Management Branch
DoH
Tel: 02890 528218

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Dear McCann, John (DOH),

Thankyou for your prompt response.

Having reviewed available guidance it transpires that since the Department is already in breach of Section 10 (failure to reply within 20 working days) that I can proceed with an immediate referral to the Information Commissioner.

On that basis I have now referred the Department's failure to the Information Commissioner. My request for an internal review can now be withdrawn.

Yours sincerely,

Ed Robb

Dear McCann, John (DOH),

Following on from previous communications I can confirm l have drawn the Department's Section 10 failure to the attention of the Information Commissioner's office.

I already have the information Commissioners acknowledgement.

Yours sincerely,

Ed Robb

Ed Robb left an annotation ()

Complaint made to ICO re Department's failure to comply with FOIA (Case ref: FS50915672)

ICO have written to the Department requesting a response be issued within ten working days, ie by Wednesday 25 March 2020.

Dear McCann, John (DOH),

The Department's ongoing failures with this FoI request are noted.

I find it difficult to understand why this request is causing the Department such difficulty since all correspondence should be linked to a letter dated 30/06/2015 issued by the Health Ministers Private Secretary under reference Cor/1051/2015. Any correspondence not so linked should be readily located as I anticipate the same supplier is common throughout.

I now await the Department's final response.

Yours sincerely,

Ed Robb

Dear DoH FOI,

This long unanswered FoI request was originally submitted on 8 January 2020 and acknowledged under reference DOH2020006 on14 January 2020.

The original request asked that the Department provide a copy of a letter dated 30 June 2015 issued by the Health Ministers Private Secretary under reference Cor/1051/2015.
The request also sought disclosure of:
1) a copy of the letters, to which the Health Minister's Private Secretary was responding to
2) a copy of two letters addressed to the Health Minister dated 6 July 2015 (namely a letter from a supplier and a letter from Department Business Innovation and Skills),

To simplify my request I no longer require copies of the letters referenced at 2) of my original request. This correspondence has now been requested from the appropriate Westminster Department.

On that basis my reduced request is for (i) a copy of a letter dated 30 June 2015 issued under reference Cor/1051/2015 and (ii) copies of two letters to the then Health Minister apparently dated 1 June 2015.

The Department’s failures in this regard, even in times of pandemic emergency, are totally unacceptable and with each day that passes I have a growing perception that something is badly amiss. My perception is not of incompetence but something much more serious.

Then again you can prove my perception to be groundless by making the necessary disclosures and belatedly satisfying the Department's obligations under the Freedom of Information legislation.

Has this issue yet been drawn to the Minister’s attention? It perhaps should be as it has already been
(twice) drawn to the attention of the Information Commissioner's Office.

Yours sincerely,

Ed Robb

Dear McCann, John (DOH),

I refer you once again to my long unanswered information request under reference FoI 2020-0006.

Now that your Departmental colleague has been able to issue his response (17/07/2020) to FoI 2020-0005 I anticipate you will shortly be in a position to alsissue a response with necessary redactions under the same sections of the Information legislation namely Section 40(2) and Section 43(2).

I await your reply.

Yours sincerely,

Ed Robb

Fitzpatrick, Catherine, Department of Health (Northern Ireland)

Dear Mr Robb,

In response to your email dated Sat 18/07/2020, a reply to FoI 2020-0006 will be issued as soon as possible.

Thank you for your email and again apologies for the delay.

Kind Regards
Catherine

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Fitzpatrick, Catherine, Department of Health (Northern Ireland)

4 Attachments

Dear Mr Robb

 

I attach DoH response to your revised FOI request of  22^nd May 2020. I
apologise for the delay in issuing this response.

 

Regards

Catherine Fitzpatrick

obo Joseph Feeney

Local Information Officer

DoH Finance Directorate.