xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx
Charcot Road
Colindale
NW9 5BG
Tel: 01923 366 7643
www.nhsbt.nhs.uk
Our ref: JR/393295
Dear JJ Evans
Re: Information request
Thank you for your request dated 9th March 2020 for information from NHS Blood
and Transplant (NHSBT) regarding record of inquiry visit to Filton.
I am writing to advise you that we are able to provide you with the following
information in response to your request.
All internal correspondence held by NHSBT that relates to the visit of the
Infected Blood Inquiry team to the Filton Donor Centre which took place in
2019. The scope of this request covers the period 1st March 2019 - 31st April
2019.
Please note that the scope of this request does NOT include correspondence
which has been sent to or received from the Infected Blood Inquiry as this
would evoke a section 32 exemption.
Fortunately, section 32 does not provide an exemption for internal material. Eg
material which has not been created by the inquiry, or placed in the custody of
the inquiry.
This has been confirmed by the ICO which overturned such attempted by the
Cardiff NHS Trust and I would refer you to the document linked below, where
Cardiff has had to fix a number of previous FOIs where this exemption was
wrongly engaged. I am pointing this out to you now, so that you do not make
the same mistake and risk a public ICO decision notice for incorrectly applying
the section 32 exemption. We started to search for the information, but the request brings up a substantial
amount of data as there is no one key word that we can look for such as person’s
name. As far as we can see, potentially, the only way of being sure that we had all
the emails would be to capture all emails sent within NHSBT between the dates of 1st
March and 30th April 2019 and then review each email to see if they discussed the IBI
visit.
I can confirm that NHSBT may hold information relevant to your request. However, to
comply with your request as it is currently framed would exceed the cost limit as set
out in section 12(1) of the Freedom of Information Act.
Section 12(1) states that a public authority can refuse a request if complying with it
would exceed the appropriate limit of £450 (which represents18 hours). This
represents the estimated cost of one person spending this time in determining
whether the information is held, and locating, retrieving and extracting the
information.
Please be assured that we are keen to assist and if you were to refine your request
for information within more specific margins, for example, by specifying a particular
subject area to which your request relates, then we may be able to continue
processing your request. However, I cannot guarantee that section 12 or any other
exemptions will not apply to any information requested.
As we want to assist as much as possible and as a starting point have enclosed the
slides that were presented to the Infected Blood Inquiry staff that attended on the
day. Please note that the video clips have been removed from the slides as they
were so large, but you should still be able to access them from the link in the
penultimate slide.
If you are able to narrow down the scope of the request to a couple of days’ time
frame or name (or job titles) who sent or received the emails this may mean that we
are able to provide you with more information.
I hope this is helpful in addressing your questions. Please quote the reference
number above in any future communications.
Yours sincerely
Wayne Lawley
Head of Corporate Communications
E-mail:
xxxxxxxx.xxxxxxxx@xxxxx.xxx.xx If you are unhappy with the service you have received in relation to your request and wish to make a
complaint or request a review of our decision, you should write to: Customer Services Operations
Manager, NHS Blood and Transplant, Charcot Road, Colindale, NW9 5BG (Email:
xxxxxxxx.xxxxxxxx@xxxxx.xxx.xx).
If you are not content with the outcome of your complaint, you may apply directly to the Information
Commissioner for a decision. Generally, the ICO cannot make a decision unless you have exhausted
the complaints procedure provided by NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT). The Information
Commissioner can be contacted at: The Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water
Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF.