NHS South East London ICB
160 Tooley Street
London
SE1 2TZ
Email: xxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
Dear Carla Torre,
Reference: FOI.23.SEL281
06 December 2023
Re: Freedom of Information request
Thank you for your request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 made to NHS South East
London Integrated Care Board (SEL ICB).
Your Request
I would be grateful to receive a copy of your DSP Toolkit External Auditor Assessment for last year
(22/23)
Our Response
NHS South East London ICB does hold this information. The ICB considers that this information is
exempt under Freedom of Information Act 2000, Section 36(2)(c) as its disclosure would be
prejudicial to the effective conduct of public affairs, given the confidential nature of the assessment
in terms of the ICBs data security.
Section 36(2) requires a public authority to consult a relevant qualified person before the exemption
is engaged. It further necessitates that the qualified person has the reasonable opinion that the
harm referenced in the exemption would, or would be likely to, arise through disclosure. The
qualified person in this case is Andrew Bland, Chief Executive.
In the qualified person’s opinion Section 36(2)(c) is engaged. Section 36 is a qualified exemption and
before the information can be withheld the wider public interest needs to be balanced against the
harm specified in the exemption.
Public Interest Test
Considerations in favour of disclosure:
•
The inherent public interest in the openness and transparency of public authority dealings
•
The public interest that officials are spending public money wisely and getting best value,
without fear or favour.
Considerations against disclosure:
•
There is an inherent public interest in not disclosing information which could be misleading
to the public and may not accurately reflect the final information.
•
There is an inherent public interest in allowing free and frank discussion and formulation of
opinion which could be negatively impacted by the disclosure of potentially misleading
information which is subject to change.
•
The assessment of the ICBs data security is of a confidential nature and its release could
expose the ICB to unsolicited attempts to access its data should any weaknesses in the
system be identified.
Conclusion:
The ICB recognises that there is a public interest in the disclosure of information which facilitates the
accountability and transparency of public bodies for decisions taken by them.
However, having undertaken the balancing exercise, the ICB have concluded that the public interest
in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the requested information
having regard to the effect that the disclosure of the information would not be in the public
interest.
We consider given that the definition of ‘public’ under the Act is considered to be the public at large,
rather than just the individual applicant or a small group of people and that ‘public interest’ is not
necessarily the same as what interests the public, it is considered that to release this sensitive
information into the public domain is likely to result in the harm specified in the exemption which is
not outweighed by the wider public interest for disclosure.
Copyright and Re-Use of Public Sector Information
The information supplied to you continues to be protected by the
Copyright, Designs and Patents
Act 1988. You are free to use it for your own purposes, including any non-commercial research you
are doing and for the purposes of news reporting. Any other re-use, for example commercial
publication and subscription charge, would require the permission of the copyright holder. This can
be obtained via an application for an open government licence (OGL) under the
Re-Use of Public
Sector Information Regulations 2015.
Use of information expressly made available under this licence indicates your acceptance of the
terms and conditions as set out in the OGL.
To make an application for re-use you must:
• Make a request in writing to the address below,
• State the name of the applicant and an address for correspondence,
• Specify the document to be re-used,
• State the purpose for which the document is to be re-used
Postal address:
NHS South East London ICB
160 Tooley Street
London
SE1 2TZ
Email:
xxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
For information where the copyright is owned by another person or organisation, you must apply to
the copyright owner to obtain their permission to re-use. Further guidance for re-users can be found
at:
http://nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/information-management/ogl-user-guidance.pdf
NHS South East London ICB complies with the
Re-use of Public Sector Information Regulations 2015
and we encourage the re-use of the information that we produce, hold and disseminate. We are
open and transparent, and treat all applications to re-use in a fair and non-discriminatory way.
Privacy Notice (formerly known as Fair Processing Notice)
We will record your contact and request details in order to monitor and improve the service we
provide and in order to discharge our statutory obligations under the Act. This information will be
handled in accordance with the NHS Confidentiality Code of Practice and the
Data Protection Act
2018.
Using personal data we provide
You are required not to use personal data which is provided to you for electronic marketing
(telesales, fax, e-mail) to our staff and comply with the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC
Directive) Regulations 2003. Provision of such personal data in response to a Freedom of
Information or Environmental Information request does not constitute consent from the individual
concerned.
The
Data Protection Act gives individuals rights to prevent processing likely to cause substantial
unwarranted damage or unwarranted distress (section 10) and to prevent processing for the
purposes of direct marketing (section 11). You should be aware that selling, giving or sharing of
personal data could breach the
Data Protection Act.
Review procedure
If you feel that we have not met the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, you
should contact the FOI Team at:
xxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
If you remain dissatisfied, you can ask us to review our decision by making a written request for an
internal review. In order to assist with the review, you should include your address, a description of
the original request and the reasons why you are dissatisfied. Please send this to:
Postal address:
NHS South East London ICB
160 Tooley Street
London
SE1 2TZ
Email:
xxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
The review will be handled by more senior staff who were not involved in the original decision. We
aim to complete all internal reviews within 20 working days. If you then wish to appeal you should
contact the Information Commissioner for an independent review at the following address:
The Information Commissioner,
Wycliffe House,
Water Lane,
Wilmslow,
Cheshire,
SK9 5AF
Tel: 0303 123 1113
Website
: www.ico.gov.uk
Yours sincerely,
Freedom of Information Team
NHS SEL ICB
