Animal and Plant Health Agency
Access to Information Team
Woodham Lane
www.gov.uk/apha
New Haw
Addlestone
Surrey
KT15 3NB
Liz Ekrem
Our ref: FOI2023/08990
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx
10 July 2023
Dear Liz Ekrem,
REQUEST FOR INFORMATION: Brucella Canis information Thank you for your request for information of 10th May about Brucella Canis
information. APHA have handled your request under the Freedom of Information Act
2000 (FOIA).
Your information request and our response are set out below.
“Please can you tell me the following:
1. How many healthy overseas dogs and reported on the lab form to have come from
Romania AND imported into the UK (routine screen, no clinical signs reported on the lab
form) have had a 1st external lab sample for brucella canis processed by yourself using
at least the SAT and iELISA?
2. Of these dogs how many tested positive on the SAT, how many tested positive on the
iELISA, and how many tested positive on both?
Section 12 – Cost
The information you have requested is being withheld under Section 12 of the Freedom
of information Act (FOIA) 2000.
APHA want to be as open as possible in answering requests for information. The FOIA
itself also requires APHA to provide reasonable advice and assistance to those seeking
to make such a request. Unfortunately, your request could cover an enormous amount
of information. Gathering it together would therefore involve a significant cost and
diversion of resources from APHA's other work.
It may be helpful to explain why your request would involve a significant cost. The
information requested is held on submission forms that are retained for no more than 18
months. APHA can only insist on the minimum information which is veterinary practice
and animal ID.
On the form, there is no field for country of origin or clinical history. It is sometimes
written on the form but at the submitter’s own discretion.
APHA is an Executive Agency of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and also works on behalf of the Scottish
Government, Welsh Government and Food Standards Agency to safeguard animal and plant health for the benefit of people, the
environment and the economy.
In the last 18 months APHA have received thousands of submissions which would need
to be checked manually for tests requested, then country of origin. It should also be
noted, submitting veterinary surgeons can ask for one or more serology test types and
submit serum from the same dog multiple times, therefore the data may overlap.
Section 12(1) of the FOIA allows APHA to refuse a request for information if estimated
that the cost of complying with the request would exceed the appropriate limit, which
currently stands at £600. On the basis of our estimates, APHA consider that the cost
would exceed this limit and, as such, we are refusing your request.
Section 12(2) provides that APHA are not required to confirm whether we hold the
information requested if by doing so we would exceed the appropriate cost limit of £600.
This is the case for the information that you have requested, and so please note that
this response should not be taken as confirmation that the information is held by APHA.
Section16 – Advice and Assistance
You may consider making a new request for a narrower category of information, that
APHA could comply with within the appropriate limit, although this cannot be
guaranteed.
The best way APHA can help, is to ask you to consider narrowing down your request to
focus more clearly on the precise information you are seeking. You could, for example,
explain more fully and precisely the kind of information you are looking for. For example
as the request covers one country, consider asking for a review of the last fifty forms
received to check if Romania has been noted on any of those forms.
Please note that if you alter your request, APHA wil handle it as a new request and so
the 20-working-day deadline for responding would commence from the date APHA
receive the modified request.
Information disclosed in response to this FOI request is releasable to the public. In
keeping with the spirit and effect of the FOIA and the government’s Transparency
Agenda, this letter and the information disclosed to you may be plac
ed on GOV.UK,
together with any related information that wil provide a key to its wider context. No
information identifying you wil be placed on the GOV.UK website.
An Annex is attached which explains the copyright that applies to the information being
released to you and contact details should you be unhappy with the service you have
received.
If you have any queries about this letter, please contact the Access to Information Team
at the email address below or postal address at the top of this letter.
Yours sincerely
Access to Information Team
APHA is an Executive Agency of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and also works on behalf of the Scottish
Government, Welsh Government and Food Standards Agency to safeguard animal and plant health for the benefit of people, the
environment and the economy
xxxxxxxxx@xxxx.xxx.xx
APHA is an Executive Agency of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and also works on behalf of the Scottish
Government, Welsh Government and Food Standards Agency to safeguard animal and plant health for the benefit of people, the
environment and the economy
Annex
Copyright
The information supplied to you continues to be protected by copyright. You are free to
use it for your own purposes, including for private study and non-commercial research,
and for any other purpose authorised by an exception in current copyright law.
Documents (except photographs or logos) can also be used in the UK without requiring
permission for the purposes of news reporting. Any other re-use, for example
commercial publication, would require the permission of the copyright holder.
Most documents produced by APHA wil be protected by Crown Copyright. Most Crown
copyright information can be re-used under the
Open Government Licence. For information
about the OGL and about re-using Crown Copyright information please see
The National
Archives website. Copyright in other documents may rest with a third party. For information about
obtaining permission from a third party see the
Intel ectual Property Office’s website. Complaints
If you are unhappy with the service you have received in relation to your request, you
may make a complaint or appeal against our decision under section 17(7) of the FOIA
within 40 working days of the date of this letter. Please write to the Access to
Information Team at the address at the top of this letter or email
xxxxxxxxx@xxxx.xxx.xx and the team wil arrange for an internal review of your case.
If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, section 50 of the FOIA
gives you the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) for a
decision. Please note that generally the ICO cannot make a decision unless you have
first exhausted APHA’s own complaints procedure.
The ICO can be contacted at:
Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Please click
here for further contact details.
APHA is an Executive Agency of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and also works on behalf of the Scottish
Government, Welsh Government and Food Standards Agency to safeguard animal and plant health for the benefit of people, the
environment and the economy
