Health threatening planning applications and your role

NHS England Nid oedd gan y wybodaeth y gofynnwyd amdani.

AB WELFARE & WILDLIFE TRUST

Dear NHS England,

Please provide the following information:-

(1) a rough and ready estimation, of the number of times in the last five years or since your organisation was established, that you have been consulted by Local Planning Authorities (LPAs), for advice in connection with planning applications;

(2) whether those consultations were about large and small scale proposals, which might have impacts on the health of small and large numbers of people - we are content for you to define the meanings of large and small;

(3) sufficient evidence which illustrates how your organisation could, should and/or would respond to future consultations by LPAs;

(4) any illustrations of related guidance which your organisation has provided to LPAs., to better enable them to comply with their legal duties to protect and promote health and wellbeing.

BACKGROUND DETAILS

We understand that for about 7 years, all local authorities have had a legal duty to protect and promote health and wellbeing, in EVERYTHING they do and they must seek, "THE MOST HEALTH BENEFIT" in all decisions taken.

That duty has applied to all decision making on planning applications in the last 3 years, which are undermining our pioneering bereavement work.

More details about that duty can be found in this FoI request:-
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/d...

It is our strong impression and it is only an impression, that Harrogate Borough Council is uncertain as to the weight which can be given to threats to health.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG) issued in 2014, 'The role of health and wellbeing in planning'.

That states:- "the views of the local Clinical Commissioning Group and NHS ENGLAND should be sought regarding the impact of new development which would have a significant or cumulatively significant effect on health infrastructure and/or the demand for healthcare services".

It is not clear why the MHCLG advised LPAs to consult with both organisations. Also, the advice reads as though LPAs will have decided what the effects "would" be, before consulting with the two organisations.

It seems more likely, that the intention might have been, to advise to consult when the effects would be difficult for LPAs to judge.

The Director of Public Health for our area has stated that he and his team would not advise on planning applications, even though the Department of Health & Social Care (DHSC) and the MHCLG advise to consult with him. We are seeking clarification from the Association of Directors of Public Health, as its members may have different approaches to the subject.

The DHSC and MHCLG have been asked to provide clarity. However, each has advised to contact the other, so at present we are going around in circles.

We are profoundly concerned about our pioneering bereavement project being edged towards collapse, by four planning permissions. A fifth is now under consideration and if approved in any shape or form, would be exponentially worse than the previous four combined.

Two medics objected to the first and one of those was as stated, a member of the Leeds CCG.. We will send to you by email, the texts of those recorded objections plus two others from service users, even though no objections carried any apparent weight. We will include some confidential photographs.

Yours faithfully,

John Bradfield.
Former Medical, Psychiatric & Child Care Social Worker & Tutor.
Mental Health Campaigner & Former MH Review Tribunal Representative.
Campaigner and Writer on Bereavement Issues, Related Law & Practice.

Dear NHS England,

The above FoI request was sent on the 09 August 2019 and followed with an email on the same day, with the confidential information referred to.

Thus far, we have no evidence, that you have seen this FoI request or the related email.

We have today, realised that the website within the above request became truncated.

As it will not transmit as it should appear, we have now broken it into two parts. Consequently, it may only be possible to see the details referred to by joining up these two lines and pasting them as one continuous line, into a search bar:-

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/
request/do_threats_to_health_justify_ref_2

Yours faithfully,

John Bradfield.

FOI, England (NHS ENGLAND & NHS IMPROVEMENT - X24), NHS England

Dear John Bradfield,

 

Thank you for your correspondence dated 9 August 2019.

 

Your correspondence read:-

           

            “Please provide the following information:-

 

(1) a rough and ready estimation, of the number of times in the last five
years or since your organisation was established, that you have been
consulted by Local Planning Authorities (LPAs), for advice in connection
with planning applications;

 

(2) whether those consultations were about large and small scale
proposals, which might have impacts on the health of small and large
numbers of people - we are content for you to define the meanings of large
and small;

 

(3) sufficient evidence which illustrates how your organisation could,
should and/or would respond to future consultations by LPAs;

 

(4) any illustrations of related guidance which your organisation has
provided to LPAs., to better enable them to comply with their legal duties
to protect and promote health and wellbeing.”

 

NHS England is not, at this stage, able to proceed with your enquiry under
the (FOI) Act, as your request is unclear.

 

We would be grateful if you could clarify the following:

 

Date range - do you mean:

- For the last 5 years?
- Since NHS England was established?
- Or something else?

 

“Large- and small-scale proposals”, “small and large numbers of people”

o We would be grateful if you could define ‘large and small’.

 

Please note that the FOI Act gives you the right to ask any public sector
organisation for the recorded information they have on any subject. You
can ask for any information you think a public authority may hold.

 

The right only covers recorded information which includes information held
on computers, in emails and in printed or handwritten documents. Your
request can be in the form of a question, rather than a request for
specific documents, but the authority does not have to answer your
question if this would mean creating new information or giving an opinion
or judgment that is not already recorded.

 

As such, we would also be grateful if you could clarify what recorded
information you are seeking from NHS England.

 

As set out at Section 1(3) of the FOI Act, when further information is
required in order to identify and locate the information requested, and
the applicant has been informed, no further action is required until the
additional information has been received.

 

Please send your clarified request to [1][NHS England request email].

 

Once received, NHS England will write to acknowledge receipt of your
request and to provide you with a reference number. Please note that the
20 working day timeframe for complying with an FOI request does not
commence until the above information is provided.

 

Please do not reply to this email. This message has been sent from a
central mailbox. To communicate with NHS England regarding Freedom of
Information (FOI) requests, enquiries or complaints we ask these are sent
directly to NHS England’s customer contact centre. This is to ensure all
communications are progressed correctly. Their postal address, telephone
number and email details are as follows:- PO Box 16738, Redditch, B97 9PT;
0300 3 11 22 33, [2][NHS England request email].

 

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Freedom of Information

Corporate Communications Team

Patients and Information Directorate

 

NHS England

PO Box 16738

REDDITCH

B97 9PT

 

Tel: 0300 311 22 33

Email: [NHS England request email]

dangos adrannau a ddyfynnir

Gadawodd Richard Taylor anodiad ()

Web addresses contained in requests are sent to public bodies.

When we display long URLs in correspondence we truncate the text displayed, but not the link itself, so the link itself still works. This is done so long links don't upset the way correspondence threads are displayed; the practice is in-line with what for example Google does in its search results.

We appreciate this can cause confusion, and cause information to be missing when text is copied and pasted from correspondence as may have happened here.

--
Richard - WhatDoTheyKnow.com volunteer

Dear FoI Team,

We had requested the following:-
"(1) a rough and ready estimation of:-
(a) the number of times in the last five years OR
(b) since your organisation was established,
that you have been consulted by Local Planning Authorities (LPAs), for advice in connection with planning applications".

You appear to ask whether we mean (a) or (b) or something else. Our intention had been, to provide you with the discretion to respond to EITHER (a) "OR" (b).

That was to enable you to decide which would be less time consuming for you to deal with.

We are content to drop both (a) and (b), as long as we have some clear indication of how often, if at all, you have been consulted by LPAs.. We cannot raise the full extent of the difficulty with the Department of Health & Social Care, NHS England, Public Health England, our Clinical Commissioning Group and related organisations, without some indication of what has and has not been happening, with each organisation.

However, if you cannot respond, without us specifying a fixed period of time, then we specify 5 years but that is an arbitrary figure plucked out of thin air and you are free to ignore it.

We had requested the following:-
"(2) whether those consultations were about large and small scale proposals, which might have impacts on the health of small and large numbers of people - we are content for you to define the meanings of large and small".

You ask what we mean by "large and small", in connection with the scale of planning proposals and numbers of people.

Again, our intention had been, to provide you with the discretion to apply whatever definition or meaning would simplify your task.

However, if you cannot respond, without us providing a definition, then we specify 10 or less people as meaning small and 10 and over as meaning large, right up to dozens, hundreds and thousands.

Again, these figures are arbitrary and you are free to ignore them, if doing so would simplify your task.

(X) You ask us to "clarify what recorded information" we are seeking, noting that it may cover details "on computers, in emails and in printed or handwritten documents".

Again, we are keen to avoid making our request burdensome for your staff. We had hoped that would be clear in (3) where we say our need is only for ,"Sufficient evidence which illustrates" and in (4) our need is only for "illustrations of related guidance".

Those might be recorded in one or more ways but we are not seeking every record and we are not seeking duplicated records. We simply need a rough and ready picture of what, if anything, has been happening, in connection communications with LPAs..

However, if you need us to state computers, emails, printed and handwritten documents then we do so here. However, please feel free to ignore whatever might prove disproportionate, simply to provide "Sufficient evidence" which "illustrates" the picture which we hope to obtain.

Yours sincerely,

John Bradfield.

FOI, England (NHS ENGLAND & NHS IMPROVEMENT - X24), NHS England

Dear John Bradfield,

 

Thank you for your communication dated 8 September 2019.

 

NHS England has assessed your communication as a request under the Freedom
of Information (FOI) Act 2000. As such, please be assured that your
request is being dealt with under the terms of the FOI Act and will be
answered within twenty working days.

 

For further information regarding the FOI Act, please refer to the
Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) website. For further information
regarding NHS England and the information it publishes please visit our
website here.

 

If you have any queries about this request or wish to contact us again,
please email [1][NHS England request email] and the message will be
forwarded appropriately. Please remember to quote the above reference
number in any future communications.

 

Please do not reply to this email. This message has been sent from a
central mailbox. To communicate with NHS England regarding Freedom of
Information (FOI) requests, enquiries or complaints we ask these are sent
directly to NHS England’s customer contact centre. This is to ensure all
communications are progressed correctly. Their postal address, telephone
number and email details are as follows:- PO Box 16738, Redditch, B97 9PT;
0300 3 11 22 33, [2][NHS England request email].

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Freedom of Information

Corporate Communications Team

Transformation and Corporate Operations Directorate

 

NHS England

PO Box 16738

REDDITCH

B97 9PT

 

Tel: 0300 311 22 33

Email: [3][NHS England request email]

 

‘Health and High quality care for all, now and for future generations’

 

 

 

dangos adrannau a ddyfynnir

FOI, England (NHS ENGLAND & NHS IMPROVEMENT - X24), NHS England

Dear John Bradfield,  

 

Thank you for your Freedom of Information request reference FOI-060166.

 

Your initial request, placed on 9 August 2019 was:

 

“ (1) a rough and ready estimation, of the number of times in the last
five  years or since your organisation was established, that you have
been  consulted by Local Planning Authorities (LPAs), for advice in
connection  with planning applications;

 

(2) whether those consultations were about large and small scale 
proposals, which might have impacts on the health of small and large 
numbers of people - we are content for you to define the meanings of
large  and small;

 

(3) sufficient evidence which illustrates how your organisation could, 
should and/or would respond to future consultations by LPAs;

 

(4) any illustrations of related guidance which your organisation has 
provided to LPAs., to better enable them to comply with their legal
duties  to protect and promote health and wellbeing.”

 

You then clarified this request on 8 September 2019:

 

            “We had requested the following:-

"(1) a rough and ready estimation of:-

(a) the number of times in the last five years OR

(b) since your organisation was established, that you have been consulted
by Local Planning Authorities (LPAs), for advice in connection with
planning applications".

 

You appear to ask whether we mean (a) or (b) or something else. Our
intention had been, to provide you with the discretion to respond to
EITHER (a) "OR" (b).

 

That was to enable you to decide which would be less time consuming for
you to deal with.

 

We are content to drop both (a) and (b), as long as we have some clear
indication of how often, if at all, you have been consulted by LPAs.. We
cannot raise the full extent of the difficulty with the Department of
Health & Social Care, NHS England, Public Health England, our Clinical
Commissioning Group and related organisations, without some indication of
what has and has not been happening, with each organisation.

 

However, if you cannot respond, without us specifying a fixed period of
time, then we specify 5 years but that is an arbitrary figure plucked out
of thin air and you are free to ignore it.

 

We had requested the following:-

"(2) whether those consultations were about large and small scale
proposals, which might have impacts on the health of small and large
numbers of people - we are content for you to define the meanings of large
and small".

 

You ask what we mean by "large and small", in connection with the scale of
planning proposals and numbers of people.

 

Again, our intention had been, to provide you with the discretion to apply
whatever definition or meaning would simplify your task.

 

However, if you cannot respond, without us providing a definition, then we
specify 10 or less people as meaning small and 10 and over as meaning
large, right up to dozens, hundreds and thousands.

 

Again, these figures are arbitrary and you are free to ignore them, if
doing so would simplify your task.

 

(X)  You ask us to "clarify what recorded information" we are seeking,
noting that it may cover details "on computers, in emails and in printed
or handwritten documents".

 

Again, we are keen to avoid making our request burdensome for your staff.
We had hoped that would be clear in (3) where we say our need is only for
,"Sufficient evidence which illustrates" and in (4) our need is only for
"illustrations of related guidance".

 

Those might be recorded in one or more ways but we are not seeking every
record and we are not seeking duplicated records. We simply need a rough
and ready picture of what, if anything, has been happening, in connection
communications with LPAs..

 

However, if you need us to state computers, emails, printed and
handwritten documents then we do so here. However, please feel free to
ignore whatever might prove disproportionate, simply to provide
"Sufficient evidence" which "illustrates" the picture which we hope to
obtain.”

 

NHS England does not hold information in relation to your request.

 

It may help if we first explain that NHS England is not the same as ‘the
NHS in England’. The NHS in England is not a single organisation but is
made up of a range of organisations such as Hospitals, Clinical
Commissioning Groups (CCGs) and Ambulance Trusts. NHS England is
responsible for commissioning primary care services such as GP and dental
surgeries, as well as some specialised secondary care services. Therefore,
any recorded information NHS England may be able to provide in response to
an FOI request will generally relate to the services NHS England
commissions.

 

For information on commissioned services and the types of information NHS
England holds can be found on our [1]website and [2]publication scheme.
For further information on the NHS, its structure and other NHS
organisations please refer to the NHS [3]website.

 

NHS England has neither consulted with or been consulted by Local Planning
Authorities (LPAs), for advice in connection with planning applications.
We may review outcomes from individual applications or make suggestions
about applications by Trusts but we have not been asked to be involved in
any consultation processes.

 

Planning applications for new building or change of use of existing
premises are dealt with on a project by project basis by NHS Provider
organisations, NHS Property Services and Community Health Partnerships
with the LPAs.

 

As such, information relevant to your request may be held by individual
hospital Trusts as provider organisations. You may wish to redirect your
enquiry to Trusts directly. You can find Trust contact information on the
NHS website at the following web link:

 

o [4]https://www.nhs.uk/servicedirectories/pa...

 

Further information may be held by NHS Property Services. You may wish to
redirect your enquiry there accordingly. You can place an FOI request with
NHS Property Services using their contact details below:

 

Email:             [5][email address]

 

Address:        NHS Property Services

99 Gresham Street

London

EC2V 7NG

 

Additional information may be held by the Local Planning Authorities
themselves. As such, you may wish to redirect your enquiry there. You can
find a list of local authorities at the following link:

 

o [6]https://www.local.gov.uk/our-support/gui...

 

We hope this information is helpful. However, if you are dissatisfied, you
have the right to ask for an internal review. This should be requested in
writing within two months of the date of this letter. Your correspondence
should be labelled “Internal Review” and should outline your concerns
and/or the area(s) you would like the review to consider. Internal Review
requests should be sent to:

 

NHS England

PO Box 16738

REDDITCH

B97 9PT

 

Email: [7][NHS England request email]

 

Please quote the reference number FOI-060166 in any future communications.

 

If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have
the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a
decision. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) can be contacted at:

 

The Information Commissioner’s Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

 

Telephone: 0303 123 1113

Email: [8][email address]  

Website: [9]www.ico.org.uk

 

Please note there is no charge for making an appeal.

 

Please be aware that in line with the Information Commissioner’s directive
on the disclosure of information under the FOI Act, your request will be
anonymised and published on our website as part of our disclosure log.

 

Please do not reply to this email. This message has been sent from a
central mailbox. To communicate with NHS England regarding Freedom of
Information (FOI) requests, enquiries or complaints we ask these are sent
directly to NHS England’s customer contact centre. This is to ensure all
communications are progressed correctly. Their postal address, telephone
number and email details are as follows: PO Box 16738, Redditch, B97 9PT;
0300 3 11 22 33, [10][NHS England request email].

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Freedom of Information

Corporate Communications Team

Transformation and Corporate Operations Directorate

 

NHS England

PO Box 16738

REDDITCH

B97 9PT

 

Tel: 0300 311 22 33

Email: [NHS England request email]

 

dangos adrannau a ddyfynnir

Dear FOI, England (NHS ENGLAND & NHS IMPROVEMENT - X24),

Thank you for your reply, which, unless we have misread it, states that you do not hold any of the requested information, because it is not relevant to your functions.

Yours sincerely,

John Bradfield.