Freedom of Information Team
Department of Health and Social Care
39 Victoria Street
London
SW1H 0EU
www.gov.uk/dhsc
Ms Mhairi Brown
request-743231-
xxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx
5 May 2021
Dear Ms Brown,
Freedom of Information Request Reference FOI-1319946
Thank you for your request dated 1 April 2021 in which you asked the Department of Health and
Social Care (DHSC)
:
Subject: Freedom of Information request - Correspondence with food/beverage industry
regarding reformulation
Dear Department of Health and Social Care,
I am writing, in accordance with Freedom of Information legislation, to request the release
of the following:
(1) Correspondence (electronic & hard copy/written) between senior officials within your
Department and food/beverage corporations or trade bodies/associations on the topic of
reformulation (i.e. salt, sugar and/or calorie reduction) and PHE's reformulation programme,
since January 2016.
(2) Minutes and attendee lists of meetings between senior officials within your Department
and food/beverage corporations or trade bodies/associations on the topic of reformulation
(i.e. salt, sugar and/or calorie reduction) and PHE's reformulation programme since January
2016.
If you feel that you can't answer my request on a reasonable timeframe, or the request is
too broad, I would be grateful if you could contact me immediately and provide assistance
as to how I could narrow down my request.
If you have already released any of this information in response to another FOI request it
would be helpful if you could share this too.
Your request has been handled under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
DHSC holds information relevant to your request. However, to comply with your request as it is
currently framed would incur disproportionate cost as defined by Section 12(1) of the FOIA, which
sets out that a public authority can refuse a request, if complying with it would exceed the
appropriate limit of £600 (which represents 24 staff hours). This represents the estimated cost of
one person spending this time in determining where the information is held, and locating, retrieving
and extracting the information.
The timeframe of your request is long, and would require all current and previous members of the
relevant DHSC policy team (the Healthy Weight and Nutrition team) since January 2016 to search
their folders to identify relevant documents. Searches would also be required in our central
correspondence database, as food and drink manufacturers/trade bodies may have contacted the
department via that route, and have received responses from our correspondence unit on behalf of
officials. Furthermore, without uniquely identifiable keywords with which to carry out searches, an
extremely large volume of information in relation to reformulation and PHE’s reformulation
programme would need to be individually reviewed in order to determine if it would be within scope
of your request, which we have assessed would exceed the section 12 cost limit.
If you were to refine your request to within more specific margins, then we may be able to process
it. For example, you may consider reducing the timeframe. We would also ask that you clarify that
by ‘senior officials’ you are referring specifically to Senior Civil Servants. You may also consider
outlining a particular aspect of reformulation and PHE’s reformulation programme that you are
interested in (perhaps by identifying keywords), or particular food and drinks manufacturers or
trade bodies, which would more easily enable us to search our records.
However, we cannot guarantee that Section 12 or any other exemptions will not apply to a
reframed request. I should also point out that whilst the relevant policy team at DHSC is the
Healthy Weight and Nutrition team (as indicated above), reformulation policy is led by Public
Health England, and DHSC does not answer FOI requests on their behalf.
If you are not satisfied with the handling of your request, you have the right to appeal by asking for
an internal review. This should be submitted within two months of the date of this letter and sent to
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxx.xxx.xx, or to the address at the top of this letter.
Please remember to quote the reference number above in any future communication.
If you are not content with the outcome of your internal review, you may complain directly to the
Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). Generally, the ICO cannot make a decision unless you
have already appealed our original response and received our internal review decision. You should
raise your concerns with the ICO within three months of your last meaningful contact with us.
The ICO can be contacted at:
The Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
https://ico.org.uk/concerns/
Yours sincerely,
Dorothy Crowe
Freedom of Information Officer
E: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxx.xxx.xx