EIA and Trans Toolkit legal advice - notes from meeting women's organisations

The request was partially successful.

Dear NHS Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire Clinical Commissioning Group,

Please could you provide a copy of the meeting notes from the meeting with representatives from a number of women's organisations.

Provided individual personal data is redacted, I don't know of any exemption to the Freedom of Information Act that would prevent the release of these notes. However, should there be an exemption I would argue that it is in the public interest to release the notes. The Trans Toolkit, like many trans issues, is an area of intense public interest. Feedback from the meeting has fed into the process of making public policy that aims to balance the rights of trans people against other people. Transparency in policy making demands making these notes public.

Yours faithfully,

R Bowyer

FOI (NHS BRISTOL, NORTH SOMERSET AND SOUTH GLOUCESTERSHIRE CCG), NHS Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire Clinical Commissioning Group

1 Attachment

Good afternoon,

 

Thank you for your request for information, which we received on 16^th
December 2020, regarding documents and information relating to notes from
meeting women's organisations.

 

I am acknowledging your request on behalf of Bristol, North Somerset and
south Gloucestershire Clinical Commissioning Group (BNSSG CCG). We will be
dealing with your request for information in accordance with the Freedom
of Information Act 2000.

 

Under the Act we have 20 working days to respond to your request and we
expect to be in a position to reply to you by 18^th January 2021.

 

Please note: due to the current situation with Covid-19 we are still
experiencing some delays in processing requests for information. This
could be due to staff absence and/or ability to access the information,
however we will endeavor to respond to your request within the statutory
20 days.

 

Dealing with your request:

In normal circumstances we should be able to (a) confirm or deny that we
hold this information and (b) if we hold it, send it to you within the
statutory timescale of 20 working days. You should note however that the
Act defines a number of exemptions which may prevent us complying with
either of these duties. We will explain if this is the case and if we
apply the 'public interest test' to our decision.

If you have any queries about this e-mail, please contact me quoting the
reference number above in any future communications.

 

Further information about the Freedom of Information Act and the
Environmental Information Regulations may be found on the Information
Commissioner’s website at [1]https://ico.org.uk/.

 

Yours faithfully,

 

Freedom of Information Team

NHS Bristol, North Somerset & South Gloucestershire CCG

[2]www.bnssgccg.nhs.uk

 

 

Please be aware that all emails received and sent by this organisation are
subject to the Freedom of Information Act (2000) and may be disclosed to a
third party. If you believe you have been sent this message in error,
please inform the sender and delete the message and any attachments as
soon as possible. All messages sent by this organisation are checked for
viruses but this does not, and cannot, guarantee that a virus has not been
transmitted. 

 

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FOI (NHS BRISTOL, NORTH SOMERSET AND SOUTH GLOUCESTERSHIRE CCG), NHS Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire Clinical Commissioning Group

2 Attachments

Good morning,

 

Thank you for your request for information, which we received on 16^th
December 2020, regarding documents and information relating to notes from
meeting women's organisations.

 

Under the Act we have 20 working days to respond to your request. However,
when a qualified exemption applies to the information and the public
interest test is engaged, the Act allows time for the response to be
responded to, up to an additional 20 working days. We do try to make all
decisions within 20 working days, including cases where we need to
consider where the public interest lies in respect to a request for
information. In this case, however, we have not yet reached a decision on
where the balance of public interest lies.

 

In your case we estimate it will take an additional 20 days to make a
decision on where the balance of the public interest lies. Therefore, we
expect to be in a position to provide you with a response by 15^th
February 2021.

 

If you have any queries about this e-mail, please contact me quoting the
reference number above in any future communications.

 

Further information about the Freedom of Information Act and the
Environmental Information Regulations may be found on the Information
Commissioner’s website at [1]https://ico.org.uk/

 

Yours faithfully,

 

Freedom of Information Team

NHS Bristol, North Somerset & South Gloucestershire CCG

[2]www.bnssgccg.nhs.uk

 

[3]cid:image003.png@01D6E7FA.BA9E5FF0 

Please be aware that all emails received and sent by this organisation are
subject to the Freedom of Information Act (2000) and may be disclosed to a
third party. If you believe you have been sent this message in error,
please inform the sender and delete the message and any attachments as
soon as possible. All messages sent by this organisation are checked for
viruses but this does not, and cannot, guarantee that a virus has not been
transmitted. 

 

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Dear FOI (NHS BRISTOL, NORTH SOMERSET AND SOUTH GLOUCESTERSHIRE CCG),

I made my request on the 16 December 2020 and therefore in all circumstances the CCG should have responded to my request by now. However, I fully accept the COVID public health emergency is still putting exceptional pressure on the NHS. Given the current situation, would you be able to let me know when you will be able to respond to my request.

Thank you for your help.

Yours sincerely,

R Bowyer

FOI (NHS BRISTOL, NORTH SOMERSET AND SOUTH GLOUCESTERSHIRE CCG), NHS Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire Clinical Commissioning Group

1 Attachment

Good afternoon,

 

We apologise for the length of time that it has taken for us to respond to
your request. The response is going through our approval process, which
has taken longer than anticipated.

 

We expect to be in a position to provide the response by 1^st March 2021.

 

Yours faithfully,

 

Freedom of Information Team

NHS Bristol, North Somerset & South Gloucestershire CCG

[1]www.bnssgccg.nhs.uk

 

 

Please be aware that all emails received and sent by this organisation are
subject to the Freedom of Information Act (2000) and may be disclosed to a
third party. If you believe you have been sent this message in error,
please inform the sender and delete the message and any attachments as
soon as possible. All messages sent by this organisation are checked for
viruses but this does not, and cannot, guarantee that a virus has not been
transmitted. 

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Dear FOI (NHS BRISTOL, NORTH SOMERSET AND SOUTH GLOUCESTERSHIRE CCG),

Thank you for the update.

Yours sincerely,

R Bowyer

FOI (NHS BRISTOL, NORTH SOMERSET AND SOUTH GLOUCESTERSHIRE CCG), NHS Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire Clinical Commissioning Group

2 Attachments

Good morning,

 

Thank you for your request for information, which we received on 16^th
December 2020, regarding documents and information relating to notes from
meeting women's organisations.

 

Under section 1 (1) (a) and (b) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, I
can confirm that the CCG does hold the information requested.  Please find
attached the response to your request, which is sent on behalf of
Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire Clinical Commissioning
Group. Your request for information has been dealt with in accordance with
the Freedom of Information Act (2000) and we hope that you find this
response helpful.

 

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) can
also be used in the UK without requiring permission for the purposes of
news reporting.  Any other reuse, for example, commercial publication,
would require the permission of the copyright holder. 

 

If you are not satisfied with the way in which we have dealt with your
request for information, then in accordance with the Act you may ask us to
conduct a review.  Internal review requests should be submitted within two
months of the date of receipt of the response to your original request and
sent to [1][NHS BNSSG CCG request email].

 

If following an internal review you remain unhappy you have the right to
apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. Generally,
the Information Commissioner's Office cannot make a decision unless you
have already exhausted NHS South, Central and West Commissioning Support
Unit's internal review procedure.  The Information Commissioner can be
contacted at:  The Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House,
Wycliffe Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK6 5AF.

 

Further information about the Freedom of Information Act can be sourced on
the Information Commissioner's website: [2]http://www.ico.gov.uk/.

 

If you have any queries about this e-mail, please contact the FOI Team on
[3][NHS BNSSG CCG request email], quoting the reference number in the subject line.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Freedom of Information Team

NHS Bristol, North Somerset & South Gloucestershire CCG

[4]www.bnssgccg.nhs.uk

 

 

Please be aware that all emails received and sent by this organisation are
subject to the Freedom of Information Act (2000) and may be disclosed to a
third party. If you believe you have been sent this message in error,
please inform the sender and delete the message and any attachments as
soon as possible. All messages sent by this organisation are checked for
viruses but this does not, and cannot, guarantee that a virus has not been
transmitted. 

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