Dr Sarah McNulty Knowsley's Director of Public Health and AstraZeneca.
Paul Woods made this Freedom of Information request to Knowsley Metropolitan Borough Council Automatic anti-spam measures are in place for this older request. Please let us know if a further response is expected or if you are having trouble responding.
Dear Knowsley Metropolitan Borough Council,
On 16th March 2021, Knowsley Council posted on their Facebook page, that Dr Sarah McNulty Knowsley's Director of Public Health was "seeking to reassure the public of the safety of Covid 19 vaccinations after concerns have been raised about the AstraZeneca vaccine"
You supplied a link to your Knowsley News website. This link does not work anymore, and does not come up when your site is searched.
Please supply the information that was contained in that link, ie Dr Sarah McNulty's reassurance that the AstraZeneca jab was safe.
I would also request that Knowsley Council make a statement about the AstraZeneca vaccine and the withdrawal of it due to safety concerns.
I require a response via email, sent to the @whatdotheyknow.com email address the request came from and not a link to a response hosted elsewhere, or on a third party file-transfer service.
Yours faithfully,
Paul Woods
Thank you for your email.
We will aim to contact you within 3 working days. In the meantime, further
information is provided within the Make a Freedom of Information request
at
[1]https://www.knowsley.gov.uk/your-council...
Kind regards,
Customer Liaison Team
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Dear Paul Woods,
Thank you for your email received on 21 May 2024 about Knowsley Council's Facebook page and AstraZeneca.
Please note you can now log a Freedom of Information request on our online portal on the following link.
https://www.knowsley.gov.uk/your-council...
I have recorded your request for information under reference F2024.05.7836.
This has been passed to the relevant service and you will receive a response by 19 June 2024.
In line with guidance published by the Information Commissioner’s Office, the council may make a charge for the provision of information – for example in order to cover the costs of postage (in line with the relevant postal charges) or charges for printing and copying (which will reflect photocopying charges levied by the council’s public libraries) or if this falls within the regulations of an EIR (Environmental Information).
You will be informed if a fee is to be applied before information is to be provided.
If you need further information please contact me.
Kind regards,
Customer Liaison Team
Knowsley Council
Archway Road
Huyton
Knowsley
Merseyside
L36 9UX
Your FOI request has been completed
Dear Paul Woods
Your FOI with Reference Number : 7836 has been completed please click on the link
below to view it
[1]https://knowsleytransaction.mendixcloud....
Customer Liaison Team
Knowsley Council
Archway Road
Huyton
Merseyside
L36 9UX
[2]www.knowsley.gov.uk
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Dear Knowsley Metropolitan Borough Council,
You said,
"The Knowsley News article published on 16 March 2021 is attached, which was based on reassurances provided by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency. In order to keep Knowsley News up to date, we regularly archive articles which are no longer relevant, which is the case with this article. No official guidance has been received regarding the AstraZeneca vaccine so the Council will not be making any further statements."
As a local authority and a Public serving one, shouldn't everything you ever say be relevant and be documented for all time?
Who decides whether something is relevant or not?
YOU promoted something as "safe and effective" when it was not and you decide to hide your mistake and blame others for it.
It is time that you took the responsibility for YOUR own actions
Yours faithfully,
Paul Woods
Thank you for your email.
We will aim to contact you within 3 working days. In the meantime, further
information is provided within the Make a Freedom of Information request
at
[1]https://www.knowsley.gov.uk/your-council...
Kind regards,
Customer Liaison Team
This e-mail and any attachments are confidential. It may contain
privileged information and is intended for the named recipient(s) only. It
must not be distributed without consent. If you are not one of the
intended recipients, please notify the sender immediately and do not
disclose, distribute, or retain this email or any part of it and do not
take any action based on it.
Unless expressly stated, opinions in this email are those of the
individual sender, and not of Knowsley MBC. Legally binding obligations
can only be created for, or be entered into on behalf of, Knowsley MBC by
duly authorised officers or representatives.
Knowsley MBC excludes any liability whatsoever for any offence caused, any
direct or consequential loss arising from the use, or reliance on, this
e-mail or its contents. We believe but do not warrant that this e-mail and
any attachments are virus free. You must therefore take full
responsibility for virus checking and no responsibility is accepted for
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it was sent. Knowsley MBC reserves the right to monitor and/or record all
e-mail communications through its network in accordance with relevant
legislation.
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Dear Mr Woods
Thank you for your response regarding your Freedom of Information request,
which Knowsley Council responded to on Wednesday 29th May 2024.
In responding to the request, we did provide you with a copy of the
Knowsley News article that you were seeking. It is important to note that
Knowsley News articles are archived periodically and are not destroyed –
as demonstrated in your request for a copy of the article published on 16
March 2021, which was retrieved from the archive. As far as we are aware
there is no guidance, statutory or otherwise, that states we cannot do
this. When we are talking about relevance, this relates to the date as
opposed to the content of the article. Knowsley News aims to ensure that
the most up-to-date news is available to residents as the news agenda is
constantly changing, so there is a need to archive older articles”.
I am also required to inform you that you can appeal against the decision
by contacting the Information Commissioner. The Commissioner’s postal
address is Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow SK9 5AF. The telephone
number for the Information Commissioner’s Office is 0303 123 1113 or 01625
545745. The e-mail address is: [1][email address]
Kind regards
Customer Liaison Team
Knowsley MBC
Archway Road
Huyton
Knowsley
Merseyside
L36 9UX
This e-mail and any attachments are confidential. It may contain
privileged information and is intended for the named recipient(s) only. It
must not be distributed without consent. If you are not one of the
intended recipients, please notify the sender immediately and do not
disclose, distribute, or retain this email or any part of it and do not
take any action based on it.
Unless expressly stated, opinions in this email are those of the
individual sender, and not of Knowsley MBC. Legally binding obligations
can only be created for, or be entered into on behalf of, Knowsley MBC by
duly authorised officers or representatives.
Knowsley MBC excludes any liability whatsoever for any offence caused, any
direct or consequential loss arising from the use, or reliance on, this
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it was sent. Knowsley MBC reserves the right to monitor and/or record all
e-mail communications through its network in accordance with relevant
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Dear Freedom of Information,
It is important to note, as I said previously, that ALL articles ever written should be publicly available, in order to be scrutinised whenever any member of the Public wants to, no matter how much time has passed.
It is irrelevant whether there is guidance or not preventing you from archiving, it is simple honesty and transparency which should guide you.
Why is there any need to archive articles at all, what is that need?
A web server can hold years and terrabytes of data.
Yours sincerely,
Paul Woods
Thank you for your email.
We will aim to contact you within 3 working days. In the meantime, further
information is provided within the Make a Freedom of Information request
at
[1]https://www.knowsley.gov.uk/your-council...
Kind regards,
Customer Liaison Team
This e-mail and any attachments are confidential. It may contain
privileged information and is intended for the named recipient(s) only. It
must not be distributed without consent. If you are not one of the
intended recipients, please notify the sender immediately and do not
disclose, distribute, or retain this email or any part of it and do not
take any action based on it.
Unless expressly stated, opinions in this email are those of the
individual sender, and not of Knowsley MBC. Legally binding obligations
can only be created for, or be entered into on behalf of, Knowsley MBC by
duly authorised officers or representatives.
Knowsley MBC excludes any liability whatsoever for any offence caused, any
direct or consequential loss arising from the use, or reliance on, this
e-mail or its contents. We believe but do not warrant that this e-mail and
any attachments are virus free. You must therefore take full
responsibility for virus checking and no responsibility is accepted for
loss or damage arising from viruses or changes made to this message after
it was sent. Knowsley MBC reserves the right to monitor and/or record all
e-mail communications through its network in accordance with relevant
legislation.
References
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Dear Paul Woods
The Council archives articles on Knowsley News when the information is no longer relevant in order to avoid misleading anyone who reads it and does not realise it is out of date. Knowsley News shares up-to-date, useful and relevant information.
For example – articles are regularly archived that preview events which are coming up once the event is over; articles are archived which invite people to apply for grants or fill in surveys once the deadline has passed. Information is archived about changes to bin collections or bank holiday arrangements, or school holiday activities, once that information is no longer relevant.
If an article shares the latest information on a certain project, and then a more up to date article is published which supersedes this information, the out-of-date article is generally archived for the reasons outlined above.
Articles may also be archived when they relate to individuals - for example, under GDPR, we may only have permission to share a person's photo or information for a certain period of time.
During the pandemic, health advice and guidance changed regularly, as it was a fast-moving situation. Our aim was to help people access the most up to date and relevant information as easily as possible - archiving articles that no longer contained the most relevant information makes it easier for people to find the latest information.
Knowsley News is a news site, not an archive. It shares information which is relevant at the time of publication. When it is no longer up to date or relevant, the content is archived in order to improve the user experience.
Dear Freedom of Information,
You said:
"The Council archives articles on Knowsley News when the information is no longer relevant in order to avoid misleading anyone who reads it and does not realise it is out of date."
That is absolute nonsense. History is always relevant.
You are acting as if everyone is stupid. It's pretty simple and normal to put THE DATE on your articles, so no one can be confused as to when it was.
"During the pandemic, health advice and guidance changed regularly, as it was a fast-moving situation."
Health advice NEVER changes unless it was WRONG in the first place.
You are simply confirming that you cannot trust anything this Council says.
Yours sincerely,
Paul Woods
Thank you for your email.
We will aim to contact you within 3 working days. In the meantime, further
information is provided within the Make a Freedom of Information request
at
[1]https://www.knowsley.gov.uk/your-council...
Kind regards,
Customer Liaison Team
This e-mail and any attachments are confidential. It may contain
privileged information and is intended for the named recipient(s) only. It
must not be distributed without consent. If you are not one of the
intended recipients, please notify the sender immediately and do not
disclose, distribute, or retain this email or any part of it and do not
take any action based on it.
Unless expressly stated, opinions in this email are those of the
individual sender, and not of Knowsley MBC. Legally binding obligations
can only be created for, or be entered into on behalf of, Knowsley MBC by
duly authorised officers or representatives.
Knowsley MBC excludes any liability whatsoever for any offence caused, any
direct or consequential loss arising from the use, or reliance on, this
e-mail or its contents. We believe but do not warrant that this e-mail and
any attachments are virus free. You must therefore take full
responsibility for virus checking and no responsibility is accepted for
loss or damage arising from viruses or changes made to this message after
it was sent. Knowsley MBC reserves the right to monitor and/or record all
e-mail communications through its network in accordance with relevant
legislation.
References
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1. https://www.knowsley.gov.uk/your-council...
Dear Mr Woods
Freedom of information request
If you are dissatisfied with your internal review response sent to you on 18 June 2024 to F2024.05.7836 you can appeal the decision by contacting the Information Commissioner. The Commissioner’s postal address is Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow SK9 5AF. The telephone number for the Information Commissioner’s Office is 0303 123 1113 or 01625 545745. The e-mail address is: [email address]
Kind regards
Customer Liaison Team
Knowsley MBC
Archway Road
Huyton
Knowsley
Merseyside
L36 9UX
This e-mail and any attachments are confidential. It may contain privileged information and is intended for the named recipient(s) only. It must not be distributed without consent. If you are not one of the intended recipients, please notify the sender immediately and do not disclose, distribute, or retain this email or any part of it and do not take any action based on it.
Unless expressly stated, opinions in this email are those of the individual sender, and not of Knowsley MBC. Legally binding obligations can only be created for, or be entered into on behalf of, Knowsley MBC by duly authorised officers or representatives.
Knowsley MBC excludes any liability whatsoever for any offence caused, any direct or consequential loss arising from the use, or reliance on, this e-mail or its contents. We believe but do not warrant that this e-mail and any attachments are virus free. You must therefore take full responsibility for virus checking and no responsibility is accepted for loss or damage arising from viruses or changes made to this message after it was sent. Knowsley MBC reserves the right to monitor and/or record all e-mail communications through its network in accordance with relevant legislation.
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