Surrogate Pregnancies

The request was successful.

Dear Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust,

Could you please let me know how many surrogate pregnancies and births have been managed through your hospitals over the past three years.

Could you let me know how many of these births were multiple births (twins or more).

Could you also let me know how many times newborn babies requiring NICU have had to be transferred to another unit due to lack of cot availability within the Trust at the time of birth over the past three years.

Finally, could you please make your hospital policy to guide staff in the management of surrogate pregnancies and births available here.

Many thanks.

Yours faithfully,

Gail Cleland

FoI (BRIGHTON AND SUSSEX UNIVERSITY HOSPITALS NHS TRUST), Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust

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FoI (BRIGHTON AND SUSSEX UNIVERSITY HOSPITALS NHS TRUST), Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust

2 Attachments

Dear Gail Cleland,

 

Thank you for your recent request for information under the Freedom of
Information (FOI) Act 2000.

 

We are now in a position to respond to your request.

 

Your request:

 

 

1. Could you please let me know how many surrogate pregnancies and births
have been managed through your hospitals over the past three years.

 

2. Could you let me know how many of these births were multiple births
(twins or more).

 

3. Could you also let me know how many times newborn babies requiring NICU
have had to be transferred to another unit due to lack of cot availability
within the Trust at the time of birth over the past three years.

 

4. Finally, could you please make your hospital policy to guide staff in
the management of surrogate pregnancies and births available here

 

Our response:

 

Under Section 1(1)(a) of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), the Trust
can confirm that it holds information relevant to your request and this
has been provided where possible below.

 

1 – 2. 2018 = ≤5, 2019 = ≤5, 2020 = 0

 

*Section 40(2) personal information exemption: this data has been
anonymised in line with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO)
guidance as it relates to the disclosure of information relevant to a
small number of living people. This guidance recommends that since the
publication of information under the Freedom of Information Act ‘is to the
wider world’ and therefore carries more data protection risk, information
relevant to a small number of people should be anonymised to ensure
identification is not possible. Therefore, where the number of patients
relevant to your request is equal to or less than 5, “≤5” has been
indicated. Although disclosure of the actual patient numbers alone may not
identify people, guidance from the ICO suggests that the ‘controller’
(i.e. the Trust in this case) must take into consideration whether people
can be identified by combining information disclosed under the FOIA with
other information already in the public domain – this is known as the
‘mosaic effect’.

 

Under the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR), ‘Personal data’ is
any information that identifies an individual, and includes information
that would identify an individual to the person to whom it is disclosed
because of any special knowledge that they have or can obtain. The first
Data Protection Principle of the GDPR states that ‘personal data shall be
processed fairly, lawfully and in a transparent manner, and processing
shall not be lawful unless one of the processing conditions can be met.’
In this case, or explicit consent from each patient would permit
disclosure.

 

The Trust considers the disclosure of more specific information to be
exempt under section 40(2) of the FOI Act on the grounds that it amounts
to personal data and the first condition under section 40(3)(a)(i) is
satisfied, namely, that disclosure would be in breach of one of the data
protection principles as outlined in Article 5(1) of the GDPR; more
specifically and in the context of your request, the First Principle that
outlines the requirement that personal data is processed ‘fairly’. It is
our view that the patients involved would have a reasonable expectation
that this information would not be disclosed into the public domain in
this way, and that disclosure would likely cause undue distress and not be
considered ‘fair’ by the individuals involved. The engagement of s.40(2)
in this case is considered absolute and is not subject to public interest
considerations.

 

 

3. The Trust does not currently hold a central record of this activity.
Any attempt to compile data in the format you are seeking, would require
the manual audit of all relevant patient records which would require an
unreasonable level of staff resources to complete. We are therefore unable
to provide the information you are seeking within the ‘appropriate limit’
as outlined in the Fees Regulations and are engaging section 12 exemption
(cost limit) at this time. We regret that the Trust does not have the
spare capacity to carry out this work.

 

Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust has studied the work
involved in processing your requests for information and has estimated
that the cost of complying with this would exceed the appropriate limit as
set out in the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate
Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004. The limit set down by the regulations
for public authorities is £450, which amounts to a maximum of 18 hours of
search and retrieval time charged at £25.00 per hour, the hourly rate also
specified in the regulations.

 

BSUH NHS Trust considers that it would take in excess of 18 hours to
retrieve and extract the information in the format that you have
requested. Subsequently, it would cost the Trust more than £450, the limit
specified in the regulations. Under section 12 of the Freedom of
Information Act, BSUH NHS Trust is therefore not obliged to provide the
information that you have requested.

 

 

4. Please refer to the document attached.

 

[1]Description: Description: Description: Description: Description:
Description: Description: Description: Description: Description:
Description:
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/wp-co...

To comply with the Re-use of Public Sector Information Regulations (2005),
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University Hospitals NHS Trust endorse you or your use of the Information.
The re-use of this Information indicates your acceptance of the terms and
conditions as set out in the OGL:
[2]http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/o...

 

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Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust 2020, licensed under
the Open Government License:
[3]http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/o...

 

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We hope that you find the information provided helpful.

 

Yours sincerely

 

Freedom of Information Office

Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust

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