Thank you for getting in touch. Please note this is an automated email.
Your receipt of this means that we have safely received your email.

We are currently receiving a high volume of requests and there will be a
delay in getting back to you with a further acknowledgement. We will do so
as soon as we can.

Since 6 December 2023, the GMC has been subject to the Welsh Language
Standards. You are welcome to contact us in Welsh and we will respond in
Welsh, without this causing additional delay.

In the meantime, if you want any further information about the GMC, please
visit our website: [1]Home - GMC (gmc-uk.org)

General Medical Council

We work with doctors, patients, and other stakeholders to support good,
safe patient care across the UK. We set the standards doctors and those
who train them need to meet, and help them achieve them. If there are
concerns these standards may not be met or that public confidence in
doctors may be at risk, we can investigate, and take action if needed.

This email may contain privileged or confidential information which should
only be used for the purpose for which it has been sent.

If you are not the addressee or have received this email in error, please
do not read, print, re-transmit, store or act in reliance on it or any
attachments. Please email the sender and then immediately delete it.

The General Medical Council is a charity registered in England and Wales
(1089278) and in Scotland (SC037750)

You are welcome to contact us in Welsh. We will respond in Welsh, without
this causing additional delay.

_________________________________________________________________

Cyngor Meddygol Cyffredinol

Rydym yn gweithio gyda meddygon, cleifion a rhanddeiliaid eraill i
gynorthwyo gofal da a diogel i gleifion ar draws y DU. Rydym yn gosod y
safonau y bydd angen i feddygon a’r rhai sy’n eu hyfforddi eu bodloni, ac
yn eu helpu i’w cyflawni. Os bydd pryderon efallai na fydd y safonau hyn
yn cael eu cyflawni neu y gallai hyder y cyhoedd mewn meddygon fod mewn
perygl, gallwn ymchwilio, a gweithredu os oes angen.

Efallai bod y neges e-bost hon yn cynnwys gwybodaeth freiniol neu
gyfrinachol, y dylid ei defnyddio at y diben y’i hanfonwyd yn unig.

Os nad chi yw’r derbynnydd neu os ydych chi wedi cael yr e-bost hwn mewn
camgymeriad, peidiwch â’i ddarllen, argraffu, ail-anfon, storio na
gweithredu mewn ffordd sy’n dibynnu arni neu unrhyw atodiadau os gwelwch
yn dda. Dylech anfon e-bost at yr anfonwr ac yna, ei ddileu ar unwaith.

Mae’r Cyngor Meddygol Cyffredinol yn elusen gofrestredig yng Nghymru a
Lloegr (1089278) ac yn Yr Alban (SC037750)

Mae croeso i chi gysylltu â ni yn Gymraeg. Byddwn yn ymateb yn Gymraeg,
heb i hyn achosi oedi ychwanegol.

References

Visible links
1. https://www.gmc-uk.org/

Dear Susan Sollazzi,

Your information request – IR1-4535409794

Thank you for your Email below dated 5^th August 2024.

How we will consider your request

We are going to consider your request under the Freedom of Information Act
2000 (FOIA). The FOIA gives us 20 working days to respond, but we’ll come
back to you as soon as we can.

Your request will be allocated to a member of the team. If you have any
queries please email [1][GMC request email].

Kind regards,

Information Access Team

General Medical Council

3 Hardman Street

Manchester

M3 3AW

show quoted sections

Dear Susan Sollazzi,

Your information requests - IR1-4516508199, IR1-4535409794,
IR1-4562050329, IR1-4562050158, and IR1-4562050293

I write further to previous correspondence with a response under the
Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA).

I am unable to provide you with the information you have requested. This
is because of the amount of data you’ve asked for and the work that would
be involved. Under FOIA there’s an exemption for requests where it would
cost the public authority more than £450 to process - equivalent to 18
hours. This is based on an hourly rate of £25 per hour, which is set by
the Freedom of Information (Fees and Appropriate Limit) Regulations 2004.
This amount is called the ‘appropriate limit.’ To estimate the cost, we
can take into account determining, locating, retrieving and extracting the
information requested.

Amalgamation of requests

When a public authority estimates whether the appropriate limit is likely
to be exceeded, it can include the costs of complying with two or more
requests so long as the requests are:

• Made for the same or similar information; and

• Received within any period of 60 consecutive working days.

I am including your requests made on 22 July, 5 August and 23 August 2024
when determining if the ‘appropriate limit’ is exceeded which relate to
information about Physician Associates and/or Anaesthesia Associates.
These requests were all made within a month of each other.

The exemption

Under the FOIA, the specific exemption which we believe applies is at
section 12. This states that we are not required to comply with a request
if we estimate that the cost of doing so would exceed the appropriate
limit.

For example, by just focusing on your email dated 22 July 2024 where you
have asked “Please advise how many GMC members have declined to renew
their membership because of the proposal to register PAs and AAs. Please
provide statistics per month from January 2023”, we would have to manually
check applications for voluntary erasures. This is because any specific
objection or concerns about the GMC’s regulation of PAs and AAs would have
to be made during the course of a doctor’s application for voluntary
erasure. Doctors with those objections may have put no reasons in their
actual application, or a combination of any other reasons, and then
mentioned PAs or AAs in their correspondence to us. I should clarify that
there is not a specific field for doctors to check which would indicate
their specific objection to the regulation of PAs and AAs.

There have been 6,003 applications for voluntary erasure since January
2023, and this does not include doctors who have relinquished their
licence to practise only. It would take around 8 minutes to review each
application and any corresponding documents to determine whether a doctor
undertook voluntary erasure because of the above reason. Based on an
hourly rate of £25 per hour (which is set by the Freedom of Information
(Fees and Appropriate Limit) Regulations 2004) this would cost us
significantly in excess of the ‘appropriate limit’ to process.

It is therefore overall clear that s.12 FOIA applies when considering your
requests collectively in accordance with the amalgamation rules set out
above.

Advice and assistance

I have included links to our website where you can access publicly
available information about the regulation of PAs and AAs:

• [1]Supporting documents on our proposed rules, standards and guidance
for the regulation of PAs and AAs
• [2]PA and AA regulation hub
• [3]Council papers from 2015 onwards which includes information on all
our work to bring PAs and AAs into regulation since 2019 when the
Department of Health and Social Care made its request

You can also choose to narrow the scope of your requests by focusing on
one question, or choosing to focus on one request, as well as narrowing
the date parameters. However, I should add that the s.12 exemption under
the FOIA (or another exemption) may still be applicable to any requests
you raise in the future.

Your right to appeal

If you would like to appeal this decision please set out your reasons in
writing to [4][GMC request email]. Please note that we will only usually
consider appeals received within 40 working days of our response. You can
also appeal to the [5]Information Commissioner, the regulator of the FOIA
and DPA.

Kind regards,

Henna Janghir

Information Access Officer

General Medical Council

3 Hardman Street

Manchester

M3 3AW

Email: [6][email address]

Tel: 0161 923 6710

Website: [7]www.gmc-uk.org

General Medical Council

We work with doctors, patients, and other stakeholders to support good,
safe patient care across the UK. We set the standards doctors and those
who train them need to meet, and help them achieve them. If there are
concerns these standards may not be met or that public confidence in
doctors may be at risk, we can investigate, and take action if needed.

This email may contain privileged or confidential information which should
only be used for the purpose for which it has been sent.

If you are not the addressee or have received this email in error, please
do not read, print, re-transmit, store or act in reliance on it or any
attachments. Please email the sender and then immediately delete it.

The General Medical Council is a charity registered in England and Wales
(1089278) and in Scotland (SC037750)

You are welcome to contact us in Welsh. We will respond in Welsh, without
this causing additional delay.

_________________________________________________________________

Cyngor Meddygol Cyffredinol

Rydym yn gweithio gyda meddygon, cleifion a rhanddeiliaid eraill i
gynorthwyo gofal da a diogel i gleifion ar draws y DU. Rydym yn gosod y
safonau y bydd angen i feddygon a’r rhai sy’n eu hyfforddi eu bodloni, ac
yn eu helpu i’w cyflawni. Os bydd pryderon efallai na fydd y safonau hyn
yn cael eu cyflawni neu y gallai hyder y cyhoedd mewn meddygon fod mewn
perygl, gallwn ymchwilio, a gweithredu os oes angen.

Efallai bod y neges e-bost hon yn cynnwys gwybodaeth freiniol neu
gyfrinachol, y dylid ei defnyddio at y diben y’i hanfonwyd yn unig.

Os nad chi yw’r derbynnydd neu os ydych chi wedi cael yr e-bost hwn mewn
camgymeriad, peidiwch â’i ddarllen, argraffu, ail-anfon, storio na
gweithredu mewn ffordd sy’n dibynnu arni neu unrhyw atodiadau os gwelwch
yn dda. Dylech anfon e-bost at yr anfonwr ac yna, ei ddileu ar unwaith.

Mae’r Cyngor Meddygol Cyffredinol yn elusen gofrestredig yng Nghymru a
Lloegr (1089278) ac yn Yr Alban (SC037750)

Mae croeso i chi gysylltu â ni yn Gymraeg. Byddwn yn ymateb yn Gymraeg,
heb i hyn achosi oedi ychwanegol.

References

Visible links
1. https://www.gmc-uk.org/pa-and-aa-regulat...
2. https://www.gmc-uk.org/pa-and-aa-regulat...
3. https://www.gmc-uk.org/about/how-we-work...
4. mailto:[gmc%20request%20email]
5. https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/
6. mailto:[email%20address]
7. http://www.gmc-uk.org/

Thank you for getting in touch. Please note this is an automated email.
Your receipt of this means that we have safely received your email.

We are currently receiving a high volume of requests and there will be a
delay in getting back to you with a further acknowledgement. We will do so
as soon as we can.

Since 6 December 2023, the GMC has been subject to the Welsh Language
Standards. You are welcome to contact us in Welsh and we will respond in
Welsh, without this causing additional delay.

In the meantime, if you want any further information about the GMC, please
visit our website: [1]Home - GMC (gmc-uk.org)

General Medical Council

We work with doctors, patients, and other stakeholders to support good,
safe patient care across the UK. We set the standards doctors and those
who train them need to meet, and help them achieve them. If there are
concerns these standards may not be met or that public confidence in
doctors may be at risk, we can investigate, and take action if needed.

This email may contain privileged or confidential information which should
only be used for the purpose for which it has been sent.

If you are not the addressee or have received this email in error, please
do not read, print, re-transmit, store or act in reliance on it or any
attachments. Please email the sender and then immediately delete it.

The General Medical Council is a charity registered in England and Wales
(1089278) and in Scotland (SC037750)

You are welcome to contact us in Welsh. We will respond in Welsh, without
this causing additional delay.

_________________________________________________________________

Cyngor Meddygol Cyffredinol

Rydym yn gweithio gyda meddygon, cleifion a rhanddeiliaid eraill i
gynorthwyo gofal da a diogel i gleifion ar draws y DU. Rydym yn gosod y
safonau y bydd angen i feddygon a’r rhai sy’n eu hyfforddi eu bodloni, ac
yn eu helpu i’w cyflawni. Os bydd pryderon efallai na fydd y safonau hyn
yn cael eu cyflawni neu y gallai hyder y cyhoedd mewn meddygon fod mewn
perygl, gallwn ymchwilio, a gweithredu os oes angen.

Efallai bod y neges e-bost hon yn cynnwys gwybodaeth freiniol neu
gyfrinachol, y dylid ei defnyddio at y diben y’i hanfonwyd yn unig.

Os nad chi yw’r derbynnydd neu os ydych chi wedi cael yr e-bost hwn mewn
camgymeriad, peidiwch â’i ddarllen, argraffu, ail-anfon, storio na
gweithredu mewn ffordd sy’n dibynnu arni neu unrhyw atodiadau os gwelwch
yn dda. Dylech anfon e-bost at yr anfonwr ac yna, ei ddileu ar unwaith.

Mae’r Cyngor Meddygol Cyffredinol yn elusen gofrestredig yng Nghymru a
Lloegr (1089278) ac yn Yr Alban (SC037750)

Mae croeso i chi gysylltu â ni yn Gymraeg. Byddwn yn ymateb yn Gymraeg,
heb i hyn achosi oedi ychwanegol.

References

Visible links
1. https://www.gmc-uk.org/

Dear Ms Sollazzi,

Appeal: IR1-4575605897

Thank you for your email dated 30 August.

We will be considering your email as a Freedom of Information Act 2000
(FOIA) appeal. We have a target response time of 20 working days. We will
endeavour to respond to you within this timeframe.

Yours sincerely

Information Access Team

General Medical Council

3 Hardman Street

Manchester

M3 3AW

show quoted sections

Dear Ms Sollazzi

I write further to previous correspondance. I have considered your appeals
but I confirm that original decisions should stand.

Your requests

I have considered your correspondance as an appeal of the following
requests:

IR-4535409794- Please advise the source of the funds to be used to fight
legal cases brought by the British Medical Association (BMA) and
Anaesthetists United challenging GMC's regulation of PAs and AAs. I
understand your officials have claimed you have no funds other than the
fees paid by doctors. Is that correct?

IR1-4562050329- Please advise when the outcome of your recent consultation
on proposed rules, standards and guidance in relation to regulating
anaesthesia associates and physician associates will be made available.
Please advise the reason for delay in publication.

IR1-4562050158- As far as I can ascertain, preparation for the
registration of PAs and AAs is at the planning stage, rather than
proceeding. With only four months until this mammoth change takes effect,
please advise what steps have actually been made and which are planned in
terms of policy agreement, increased staffing, financial arrangements,
etc. Please list:- tasks that have been completed with dates, and - tasks
that are planned, with expected completion dates.

IR1-4562050293- Please provide all documents, such as minutes of meeting
and reports, relating to the GMC's decision to undertake the registration
of PAs and AAs. Links to publicly available documents will be acceptable.

I note that you have not appealed IR1-4516508199 but the terms of that
request are relevant so for the record you asked: Please advise how many
complaints the GMC has received from members regarding the proposal to
register PAs and AAs. Please provide statistics per month from January
2023. Please advise how many GMC members have declined to renew their
membership because of the proposal to register PAs and AAs. Please provide
statistics per month from January 2023.

Your appeal

Your basis for appeal of IR-4535409794 is effectively that fulfilling it
would not take very long and in respect of IR1-4562050329, IR1-4562050158
and IR1-4562050293 is either that they should not be either linked with
IR1-4516508199 or linked together or both.

ICO Guidance

I have reviewed the guidance the ICO issues to public authorities on the
amalgamation of requests. You can review it for yourself here- [1]Requests
where the cost of compliance exceeds the appropriate limit (section 12) |
ICO.

My colleague Ms Janghir explained that a public authority can amalgamate
requests where they are made for the same or similar information and
received within any period of 60 consecutive working days. This is taken
from The Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and
Fees) Regulations 2004.

[2]Paragraph 5(2) states:

This regulation applies in circumstances in which–

(a)the two or more requests referred to in paragraph (1) relate, to any
extent, to the same or similar information, and

(b)those requests are received by the public authority within any period
of sixty consecutive working days.

What Ms Janghir did not highlight is that the law explicitly states that
the requests can be linked ‘to any extent.’

The ICO sets out in their guidance that this is ‘quite a wide test’ and
that ‘an overarching theme or common thread running between the requests
may alert you to the possibility of aggregation.’

My decision

With due consideration of the fact that the guidance also sets out that
‘an overarching theme may not be sufficient on its own. You need to be
careful not to take a superficial approach when looking for similarities
between requests,’ I do believe that your requests that Ms Janghir applied
S12 to, do indeed relate ‘to any extent, to the same or similar
information.’

I have drawn this conclusion on considering the view of the tribunal in
in [3]John Slater v IC and Department for Work and Pensions EA/2019/0118,
9 April 2020, as referred to in the ICO’s guidance which commented:

‘Whether, however, the information to which the requests related was to
any extent the same or similar is, in our view, a simple matter of
examining the terms, and the context of, the requests themselves. It is,
in essence, a question of recognition.’

I have examined the terms of the requests and note that in each of them
there is reference to ‘regulation of PAs and AAs,’ regulating anaesthesia
associates and physician associates,’ ‘registration of PAs and AAs,’
‘registration of PAs and AAs,’ and ‘the proposal to register PAs and
AAs.’  To my mind, I recognise that they are all about the GMC’s
regulation of physician associates and anaesthesia associates.

You suggest that a request for information about our consultation is
different, but I cannot agree since the consultation relates to our
regulation of physician associates and anaesthesia associates. You also
agree that in respect of IR1-4562050158 and IR1-4562050293 that the
requests are ‘about the registration of PAs and AAs, which is my concern.’

It is not denied that your requests are ‘different in each contact.’
However, the proper test is if they ‘relate, to any extent, to the same or
similar information.’ Notwithstanding that your requests are ‘different,’
they nonetheless do so relate, in my view, for the reasons set out above.

In respect of IR-4535409794, you suggest that a response would be easy to
provide to you. This may or may not be the case but as can be understood
by the law and guidance as set out above this is not a consideration as
part of the test we apply to determine if requests can be amalgamated.

In my appeal response I have up to this point only considered the issues
you raised but there might also be some value in recording that I believe
that the way we have reached a costs estimate is also reasonable. Even if
it took only 1 minute to review each Voluntary Erasure application, that
request and thus all your combined requests would be over the appropriate
limit.

Your right to appeal

You can appeal to the [4]Information Commissioner, the regulator of the
FOIA. We will of course cooperate with them if they accept any complaint
made to them.

---

Kind Regards

Matt

Matthew McCoig-Lees

Senior Information Access Officer

Information Access Team

General Medical Council

3 Hardman Street

Manchester

M3 3AW

Email: [5][email address]

Website: [6]www.gmc-uk.org

Tel: 0161 923 6579

I sometimes work flexibly and therefore this email may reach you outside
of core working hours. I don’t expect you to respond outside of your own
working hours.

General Medical Council

We work with doctors, patients, and other stakeholders to support good,
safe patient care across the UK. We set the standards doctors and those
who train them need to meet, and help them achieve them. If there are
concerns these standards may not be met or that public confidence in
doctors may be at risk, we can investigate, and take action if needed.

This email may contain privileged or confidential information which should
only be used for the purpose for which it has been sent.

If you are not the addressee or have received this email in error, please
do not read, print, re-transmit, store or act in reliance on it or any
attachments. Please email the sender and then immediately delete it.

The General Medical Council is a charity registered in England and Wales
(1089278) and in Scotland (SC037750)

You are welcome to contact us in Welsh. We will respond in Welsh, without
this causing additional delay.

_________________________________________________________________

Cyngor Meddygol Cyffredinol

Rydym yn gweithio gyda meddygon, cleifion a rhanddeiliaid eraill i
gynorthwyo gofal da a diogel i gleifion ar draws y DU. Rydym yn gosod y
safonau y bydd angen i feddygon a’r rhai sy’n eu hyfforddi eu bodloni, ac
yn eu helpu i’w cyflawni. Os bydd pryderon efallai na fydd y safonau hyn
yn cael eu cyflawni neu y gallai hyder y cyhoedd mewn meddygon fod mewn
perygl, gallwn ymchwilio, a gweithredu os oes angen.

Efallai bod y neges e-bost hon yn cynnwys gwybodaeth freiniol neu
gyfrinachol, y dylid ei defnyddio at y diben y’i hanfonwyd yn unig.

Os nad chi yw’r derbynnydd neu os ydych chi wedi cael yr e-bost hwn mewn
camgymeriad, peidiwch â’i ddarllen, argraffu, ail-anfon, storio na
gweithredu mewn ffordd sy’n dibynnu arni neu unrhyw atodiadau os gwelwch
yn dda. Dylech anfon e-bost at yr anfonwr ac yna, ei ddileu ar unwaith.

Mae’r Cyngor Meddygol Cyffredinol yn elusen gofrestredig yng Nghymru a
Lloegr (1089278) ac yn Yr Alban (SC037750)

Mae croeso i chi gysylltu â ni yn Gymraeg. Byddwn yn ymateb yn Gymraeg,
heb i hyn achosi oedi ychwanegol.

References

Visible links
1. https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/foi....
2. https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2004...
3. John Slater v IC and Department for Work and Pensions
https://informationrights.decisions.trib...
4. https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/foi-...
5. mailto:[email%20address]
6. http://www.gmc-uk.org/