Hospitality & Gifts Registers

Response to this request is long overdue. By law, under all circumstances, Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust should have responded by now (details). You can complain by requesting an internal review.

Dr Colin Iain Campbell MBChB FRSPH

Dear Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust,

I am writing to request information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. I would be interested in any information held by your organisation regarding my request. I understand that I do not have to specify particular files or documents and it is the departments responsibility to provide the information I require. If you need further clarification please contact me via this website (or email). I would like to request the following information:

For each consecutive year since 2014 until the current register (which will obviously be ongoing/unfinished):

1) Please disclose the hospitality and gifts registers of all board members.

Also:

2) Please disclose annual total amounts for the five biggest corporate donors towards events you organise over the last two whole years in each year showing the total along with a list of which groups of staff were invited to the event in question. (from the date of this FOI inclusive).

I would like the information to be provided by email or on this website in electronic form. If my request is denied in whole or in part I ask that you justify all deletions by reference to specific exemptions of the act. I will also expect you to release all non-exempt material. I reserve the right to appeal your decision to withhold any information or to charge excessive fees. I would be grateful if you could confirm in writing that you have received this request. I look forward to your response within 20 working days as outlined by the statute. Many thanks for your assistance with this request.

Yours faithfully,
Dr Colin Iain Campbell MBChB FRSPH

FOI, Enquiries (COUNTESS OF CHESTER HOSPITAL NHS FOUNDATION TRUST), Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

Hello,

Thank you for your recent Freedom of Information request. Freedom of information only applies to corporate information; this e-mail confirms receipt of your request for this type of information only.

Under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act we will expect to respond to this request in 20 working days. However we are now investigating the nature of the search and the quantity of information requested. If there is a cost involved in collecting the information then we will suspend the period for response until such time as we receive your payment. We will advise you of any such costs.

In accordance with section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 where multiple requests for information are received from one person or by different persons who appear to be acting in together in a single campaign the estimated cost of complying with any of the requests is to be taken to be the estimated total cost of complying with all of them. To this effect your requests for information will be dealt with under the single reference number above.

There are also a number of exemptions which the Act permits with respect to releasing information. The information will be assessed for these exemptions prior to us releasing the information to you. We will advise you if we are unable to provide the information requested.

Please note that a significant amount of information is also available via our Publication Scheme which can be accessed via the Trust’s website www.coch.nhs.uk and one of its benefits is that it makes information easily accessible and without charge.

Freedom of Information Officer
Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
[email address]

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Dr Colin Iain Campbell MBChB FRSPH

Dear FOI, Enquiries (COUNTESS OF CHESTER HOSPITAL NHS FOUNDATION TRUST),

I note this section in your acknowledgement:

"In accordance with section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 where multiple requests for information are received from one person or by different persons who appear to be acting in together in a single campaign the estimated cost of complying with any of the requests is to be taken to be the estimated total cost of complying with all of them. To this effect your requests for information will be dealt with under the single reference number above."

I would request that you process my FOIs separately, however if not I would direct that you please contact me before the deadline asking for a refinement to be made to permit you to comply. You have a statutory duty to help me adjust my request should section 12 be truly engaged and you should not lump unconnected requests together to create a pretence of engagement of this section.

Also, I assume you are only referring to my other request? I say this as I note this section:

"or by different persons who appear to be acting in together in a single campaign the estimated cost of complying with any of the requests is to be taken to be the estimated total cost of complying with all of them."

The second criterion would appear not to apply to my requests at first glance, but I note there is a typo (here 'or by different persons who appear to be acting IN [TYPO] TOGETHER IN a single campaign' ) which suggests this phrase may be bespoke rather than generic - I cannot see this reproduced elsewhere on previous FOIs (but I'll look more carefully). I am hopeful I am reading too much into a simple typo here and, if this is reproduced in other FOIs as part of standard wording you may wish to fix it.

To be clear:
I am making this request on my own and will not have my access rights unjustifiably restricted/curtailed by any attempt to falsely conflate or aggregate my request with any other FOI(s) you may be receiving from other parties - whether or not they are also interested in similar issues. I would view such an assertion as simply a way for the trust attempting to avoid discharging its statutory duties.

For your information, I have heard from a number of locums at your trust directly - many of whom would be fearful of speaking out directly as lack of job security/mutuality of obligations means they could be dismissed immediately on a whim - and I am reading all other related public information disclosed on http://www.whatdotheyknow.com in response to FOIs. Where I wish to corroborate this first hand information, or learn more regarding information I find published on www.whatdotheyknow.com I will naturally place further FOIs, if necessary. Obviously I will seek to avoid this, if possible.

I am concerned that the apparently bespoke section of this acknowledgement may be a prelude to attempting to conflate my requests with those of some other requestor or requestors in an attempt to avoid disclosing information not covered by exemptions which ought to be disclosed.

To reduce the number of requests I need to send you it is my intention to continue reading all FOIs placed to your trust through both www.whatdotheyknow.com and your website in an attempt to avoid duplicating the trusts workload, this may mean from time to time that I place a follow up request where I feel more information would be useful about a subject matter of interest in responses provided by the trust.

Yours sincerely,

Dr Colin Iain Campbell MBChB FRSPH

FOI, Enquiries (COUNTESS OF CHESTER HOSPITAL NHS FOUNDATION TRUST), Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

Hello,

The Trust acknowledge receipt of your email and will respond in due course.

Freedom of Information Officer,
Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.

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FOI, Enquiries (COUNTESS OF CHESTER HOSPITAL NHS FOUNDATION TRUST), Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

Hello,

The Trust are working to collate the information requested and expect to respond by close of business 12th October 2018.

Kind regards,

Freedom of Information Officer
Countless of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

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