Re. Evidence upon which the Public Health Agency NI issued guidance and/or recommendations on Mask Wearing as part of Covid-19 Response:

Public Health Agency for Northern Ireland did not have the information requested.

Dear Public Health Agency for Northern Ireland,

Pursuant to the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act, please provide all material and/or evidence, which the Public Health Agency NI considered and/or relied upon in reaching any decision to issue guidance or recommendations, whether to the Department of Health, the Northern Ireland Executive or to the public, about the wearing of masks as part of preventing the spread of Covid-19 (and/or any variant thereof) and/or as part of a response to Covid-19 (and/or any variant thereof).

Please provide this in either paper or electronic form (at your discretion) within 20 days.

I would confirm that I shall pay such reasonable fees you may incur in complying with this request as may be prescribed by legislation.

Yours faithfully,

Jonny Dunlop

Foi Pha, Public Health Agency for Northern Ireland

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This is an automated message:

 

Thank you for your FOI request.  The FOI team will formally acknowledge
receipt of your FOI request in due course.

 

However, in the meantime please consider the following.  Due to the
current pandemic, staff within the Public Health Agency are working at
full capacity to respond to and manage the situation day by day.  If you
have submitted an FOI request seeking COVID-19 related information, it is
those same staff who will have to be taken from this work and deployed in
order to provide you with a response. 

 

Over the past few months, there has been an increasing amount of
information and statistics made available on the internet, updated on a
daily or weekly basis, in order to inform the public.  This information
can be found at:

 

* [1]DoH Daily Dashboard 
* [2]NISRA dashboard
* [3]PHAWeekly COVID 19 & Monthly Epidemiological Bulletins

 

If your FOI request is COVID-19 related, please take a look at these
resources online – perhaps they will provide the information you are
seeking.  If they do, it would be extremely helpful to us if you would
withdraw your request to avoid us having to process your request further. 
You can do this by sending a follow-up e-mail to the above email address
advising that you wish to withdraw your request. 

 

If the web links above do not give you the information you are requesting,
or if your request is non-COVID-19 related, we will proceed with your
request as per our normal procedure.  Please note that given the current
COVID-19 situation PHA may not be able to respond to your request within
the 20 day timeframe laid down in the FOI Act 2000 however, please be
assured that a response will be sent as soon as we are in a position to do
so.

 

Thank you

 

FOI team

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Foi Pha, Public Health Agency for Northern Ireland

1 Attachment

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Dear Mr Dunlop

Ref: Freedom of Information Request No. 184/21

Thank you for your request for information. Your request was received by the Public Health Agency on 16 November 2021. This request will be processed under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, within the statutory timescale of 20 working days. While we will endeavour to provide you with a response within this timescale, in the event of disruption to services due to COVID-19 there may be delays. Should any delays arise, we will endeavour to keep you informed with a revised, estimated date for response. We appreciate your patience and understanding during this time.

The leaflet attached is provided for your information and tells you about the legislation and our procedures for dealing with requests for information.

If you have any queries about this communication, please do not hesitate to contact us. It would be helpful if you could quote the reference number above in any future communications relating to this request.

We hope you find this helpful.

Yours sincerely

FOI Team

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Foi Pha, Public Health Agency for Northern Ireland

“This email is covered by the disclaimer found at the end of the message.”

  ________________________________  
Dear Mr Dunlop
 
Ref: Freedom of Information Request No. 184/21
 
Your request for information has now been considered by the Public Health
Agency and our response is as follows:
 
This is not information we hold.  It is not the responsibility of Public
Health Agency to lead on these matters and we take our information from UK
wide bodies such as [1]UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) (formerly Public
Health England), raising awareness to the Public via our Website (see
useful links below):
 
[2]https://www.publichealth.hscni.net/covid...
 
[3]https://www.publichealth.hscni.net/covid...
 
The [4]Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) provides
scientific and technical advice to support government decision makers
during emergencies and regulations are made by the [5]Northern Ireland
Executive.  You may wish to contact these organisations, or the
[6]Department of Health, separately in relation to these matters.
 
Public Health Agency’s monitoring of the Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic
is published through our weekly COVID-19 Bulletin and monthly
Epidemiological Bulletins:
[7]https://www.publichealth.hscni.net/publi...
 
I hope this is helpful.  If you have any queries about this communication,
please do not hesitate to contact me. Please quote the reference number
above in any future communications relating to this request for
information.
 
Yours sincerely
 
Carol Hermin
FOI Team
 

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