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Information sharing between UK and Ireland

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Dear Department of Health and Social Care,

What information sharing arrangements are been discussed between the UK and Ireland in light of what the Secretary of Sate told Jim Sheridan DUP MP today in Parliament?

Yours faithfully,

Abdul Hai

FreedomofInformation, Department of Health and Social Care

Dear Mr Hai,

Thank you for your email.

The Freedom of Information Act only applies to recorded information such as paper or electronic archive material. As your correspondence asked for general information rather than requesting specific recorded information or documentation, it did not fall under the provisions of the Act. It will be answered as general correspondence in due course.

Yours sincerely,

FOI Team
Department of Health and Social Care

show quoted sections

Department of Health and Social Care

Our ref: DE-1303026 

   

Dear Mr Hai,  
   
Thank you for your correspondence of 9 February about sharing information.
I have been asked to reply and I apologise for the long delay in doing
so.  
 
I should explain that the Freedom of Information Act only applies to
recorded information such as paper or electronic archive material. As your
correspondence asked for general information, rather than requesting
recorded information or documentation, it did not fall under the
provisions of the Act.  

 

The Act does not cover unrecorded information that officials may remember,
opinions that officials might have, official advice (apart from past
advice the Department of Health has given, where a record of this has been
kept) or requests for an official policy statement (again, apart from past
policy statements, where a record has been kept). There is no obligation
under the FOI Act for public authorities to create new information. 

 

As the Department of Health and Social Care is currently receiving an
extremely high volume of enquiries due to the ongoing coronavirus
(COVID-19) pandemic, we are only able to provide an individual response to
the most sensitive and urgent cases.  

 

Although the Department recognises the importance of each concern and
would ordinarily respond to queries individually, the current
circumstances have required a temporary change in the method of handling
correspondence. 
 

The Department is, however, continuing to record all the correspondence
that it receives so that it is able to track the main issues being raised
by the public. 

 

If your enquiry is in relation to the pandemic, the Government has
launched a COVID-19 ‘hub’, which can be found
at [1]www.gov.uk/coronavirus and is regularly updated. The hub offers all
the Government’s latest advice and guidance, a link to the NHS website, a
portal for those offering assistance, a tracking service displaying the
latest information on cases in the UK, and an email alert service so
people can stay up to date with all the latest measures.  

 

If you consider your situation to be of a particularly sensitive or urgent
nature that does require a bespoke response, please contact the Department
again using ‘Sensitive’ and quote the case reference at the top of your
letter. We will, if deemed appropriate, aim to send a response to the
majority of such correspondence within 18 working days. However, please be
aware that due to current COVID-19 working from home guidance, there may
be a delay in us responding to physical correspondence in particular.  

 
Yours sincerely,  
   
Joseph Rawlinson  
Ministerial Correspondence and Public Enquiries 
Department of Health and Social Care 

  

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References

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We don't know whether the most recent response to this request contains information or not – if you are Abdul Hai please sign in and let everyone know.