Internal Communication in respect of FOIA request 23/073
Dear Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency,
I write to submit a Freedom of Information request under the terms of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 ('the Act'). I would be grateful if you could provide me with copies of all internal communications held by MHRA relating to FOIA request 23/073.
Yours faithfully,
CHP Gillow
Our Ref: FOI 23/265
Dear CHP Gillow,
RE: REQUEST UNDER THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000
Thank you for your enquiry which we received on 11th April.
I confirm that your request is now being handled under the Freedom of Information Act and you should receive a reply within 20 working days from our date of receipt.
If you need to contact us again about this request, please quote the reference number above.
Please be aware that we publish FOIs replies and these are redacted and are located on our website at the following link below.
https://www.gov.uk/government/collection...
Kind Regards,
MHRA Customer Experience Centre
Communications and engagement team
Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency
10 South Colonnade, Canary Wharf, London E14 4PU Telephone 020 3080 6000
Dear MHRA Customer Services,
The response I requested is overdue. By law, the MHRA should have responded promptly and by 10 May 2023.
The law requires authorities to respond “promptly” to requests. This mean that I should have received a response as soon as is practical, taking into consideration factors such as the quantity of information requested, your workload, and the staff available. In any case, the law states that the MHRA must respond within 20 working days, with a couple of exceptions.
I would be grateful if you could either supply an explanation for the delay or now supply the requested information.
Yours sincerely,
CHP Gillow
Dear MHRA Customer Services,
FOIR MHRA 23/265
This request was raised on 7 April 2023 and received an acknowledgment on 11 April. No information having been supplied, I complained to you on 11 May requesting a review of the handling of this request. No review has been communicated to me.
I would be grateful if you could now supply me with the information I sought nearly five months ago, or the findings of the review of my compliant about the handling of this request. raised over 3 months ago .
Yours sincerely,
CHP Gillow
Dear CHP Gillow
Thank you for your email. As you know, I have been working through your outstanding requests and the disclosure document I have prepared for this response is currently being checked to ensure that I have correctly removed the instances of personal information.
You will receive the response and disclosure for this later this week, as soon as the checks are complete.
I will respond separately to your email regarding 23/260 - as I have prepared a disclosure document for that request which is also being checked now.
For your awareness, you will also receive a response to the delayed request FOI 23/258 this week. As with the others, I have prepared a disclosure document, and this is being checked. I am hopeful that this disclosure can also be completed this week, although it may take longer than the other two due to the quantity of information that needs to be carefully read through to ensure that I haven't missed any requesters' names or personal details.
Yours sincerely
Lou Lander
Freedom of Information Manager
MHRA Customer Experience Centre
Communications and engagement team
Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency
10 South Colonnade, Canary Wharf, London E14 4PU
Lou Lander
Freedom of Information Manager
MHRA Customer Experience Centre
Communications and engagement team
Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency
10 South Colonnade, Canary Wharf, London E14 4PU
Dear CHP Gillow
And now sent to the correct whatdotheyknow request page!
Please see details of response below and attached.
Dear CHP Gillow
I sincerely apologise for the delay in responding to your request FOI
23/265 and I am now writing to provide the response to your request. This
request asked:
“I would be grateful if you could provide me with copies of all internal
communications held by MHRA relating to FOIA request 23/073.”
Please find attached a document containing the requested correspondence.
I’ve set out some points to note here:
· In accordance with section 1(4) of the FOIA, the information
disclosed contains the communications held at the time that your request
was made, 11 April 2023. The discussions contained in this disclosure
reflect considerations as they were in the earlier stages of the handling
of that request.
· As with the previous disclosure of FOI 23/266, the only exemption
applied is section 40(2) for staff personal information, and I’ve
indicated throughout the document where this has been applied.
· No other exemptions have been applied to the correspondence. As
the request was made through the public website, I have not removed the
name on the requests or the few instances where correspondence refers to
‘CHP Gillow’ in connection with these public requests.
· Where they are included in the chains of email, I have disclosed
the mailbox names and email addresses for MHRA public-facing mailboxes. I
have also disclosed any references to the ‘FOI policy’ mailbox and email
address, however, please be aware that this mailbox is no longer used for
public correspondence. (Enquiries regarding FOI should be directed to MHRA
Customer Services.)
· The disclosure document contains two email ‘chains’. While
preparing disclosures for your remaining delayed requests for internal
correspondence (FOI 23/260 and this request FOI 23/265) I have given a
number to the start of each chain or email. Where in the previous
correspondence to you (FOI 23/266) I included duplicated emails which
appeared in more than one chain, I have now tried to include emails only
once in the main chain or chains if possible – where earlier emails in a
chain appear more than once, I have indicated this by including squared
brackets at the end of a small chain and a direction to where the
remaining emails appear in a longer chain.
· The above approach provides you with all relevant information, but
by avoiding duplication I have reduced the amount of time needed for
redaction of names within quite long chains of duplicated emails.
· The chains in this disclosure document are as follows:
o PDF page 1: Email chain 1. The chain contains all correspondence up to
the time of your request bar the initial acknowledgement of your request
which I have included as Email chain 2.
o PDF page 18: Acknowledgement of your request from MHRA and original
request.
· Please note that PDF page 8 contains an email where two further
emails were embedded as attachments. The titles of these emails show they
contain copies of your other ongoing requests at that time – FOI 23/105
and FOI 23/1080 – and these emails are the same as those provided in the
responses to your other requests FOI 23/266 (which asked for all
correspondence in the handling of FOI 23/105) and FOI 23/260 (which asked
for copies of all correspondence in the handling of FOI 22/931 and FOI
22/1080).
Yours sincerely
Lou Lander
Freedom of Information Manager
MHRA Customer Experience Centre
Communications and engagement team
Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency
10 South Colonnade, Canary Wharf, London E14 4PU
Appeal rights
If you are dissatisfied with this response, you may ask for an internal
review. If you remain dissatisfied, you may ask the Information
Commissioner (ICO) to make a decision on whether or not we have
interpreted the FOIA correctly in dealing with the request and subsequent
internal review. The ICO’s address is:
The Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
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CHP Gillow left an annotation ()
Complaint submitted to ICO