Meeting of the Antivirals and Therapeutics Taskforce Strategy Board 19 January 2023
Dear Department of Health and Social Care,
For the Antivirals and Therapeutics Taskforce Strategy Board meeting of 19 January 2023 please provide a
- Copy of the agenda circulated before the meeting to attendees;
- Copy of the minutes of the meeting; and
- Copy of all action logs/decision logs circulated after the meeting.
Yours faithfully,
Louise Bicknell
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Dear Ms Bicknell,
Please find attached the Department of Health and Social Care's response
to your recent FOI request (our ref: FOI-1440442).
Yours sincerely,
Freedom of Information Team
Department of Health and Social Care
Dear Department of Health and Social Care,
Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.
I am writing to request an internal review of Department of Health and Social Care's handling of my 5 FOI requests. These have been amalgamated under your reference FOI-1440442
You state that to obtain basic specified information in the five FOIA requests that you have aggregated would exceed 25 hours, and in fact take 26, on the basis that the “information is not held centrally”. This one extra hour means that you are not obligated to respond.
I dispute that such a request could take so long and therefore this is not a reasonable estimate. All information will be stored electronically and have been circulated in that form.
Three of the requests are in respect of the Antivirals and Therapeutics Taskforce administered Boards. The administration for them should be simple to locate. Two of the requests are for specific meeting date. One is basically a simple question to determine whether the Engagement Board met after 20 July 2022 and the dates of these meetings if so, plus their details.
Of the others, which I appreciate will be administered elsewhere in the DHSE structure:
- For the Prophylaxis Oversight Group the request is for dates of all meetings from 1 June 2022 and if these took place their agendas, minutes and action/decision logs. This is a simple email request to the administrator of that Group.
- For the Therapeutics Clinical Review Panel the request is (as an above) for dates of all meetings from 1 June 2022 and if these took place their agendas, minutes and action/decision logs. This is a simple email request to the administrator of that Group.
From working in an investment bank collating such data from different departments for regulatory investigations these would be simple collation tasks, not taking more than three emails plus chasing for failures to respond. I would anticipate collating taking no more than 5 hours all in. Then a read through review. I therefore find the quote for 26 hours therefore neither sensible nor realistic. If you are to proceed with this argument please provide a proper quantification in a form that meets the ICO Guidance on its expectations on this point. Please also explain the basis of the calculation on the basis of your search strategy.
If in performing your review you determine that 26 hours is accurate I am more than happy to pay the £25 for the extra hours work.
You ask that I seek to specify the type of meeting - this has been specified in the requests. You ask that I significantly reduce the time frame, but without provision of the actual meeting dates this is not possible. Had your response said, for example, that for the Prophylaxis Oversight Group there were 100 meetings after this date this would be reasonable. You have given no such indication. You could in respect of the requests in Annex B, C and D in your response simply have provided the dates for those meetings to explain why the provision of this information would take so much time. You have failed to do so, so have not met your obligation to inform me what information can be provided within the appropriate limit as required under section 16 of the Act.
Yours faithfully,
Louise Bicknell
Dear Ms Bicknell,
Your requested internal review of FOI-1440442 is now complete. Please see
the attached letter for the outcome.
Yours sincerely,
FOI Internal Reviews
Department of Health and Social Care
Dear Ms Bicknell,
I am writing with reference to the five FOI requests you made on 27
February and your subsequent complaint to the office of the Information
Commissioner.
Please see the attached letter.
New logo smal Alan Addison
Team Leader - FOI
Ministerial Correspondence and Public Enquiries
Department of Health and Social Care,
39 Victoria Street, London SW1H 0EU
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Louise Bicknell left an annotation ()
Two are now answered. Three are still outstanding an answer. DHSC has said they are working on this and will revert as a priority
If no answer i will refer again to the ICO
Dear Ms Bicknell,
I am writing with reference to the five FOI requests you made on 27
February and your subsequent complaint to the office of the Information
Commissioner.
Please find attached a letter and two other documents.
A copy of this email will be shared with the ICO.
Thank you.
Alan Addison
New logo smal Alan Addison
Team Leader - FOI
Ministerial Correspondence and Public Enquiries
Department of Health and Social Care,
39 Victoria Street, London SW1H 0EU
This e-mail and any attachments is intended only for the attention of the
addressee(s). Its unauthorised use, disclosure, storage or copying is not
permitted. If you are not the intended recipient, please destroy all
copies and inform the sender by return e-mail. Any views expressed in this
message are not necessarily those of the Department of Health and Social
Care. Please note: Incoming and outgoing email messages are routinely
monitored for compliance with our policy on the use of electronic
communications.
Dear Ms Bicknell,
I wrote to you on 21 July with reference to the five FOI requests you made
on 27 February and your subsequent complaint to the office of the
Information Commissioner.
My reply consisted of a letter and two other documents, which were
redacted copies of minutes of meetings. Since I wrote to you it has come
to the department’s attention that there were inconsistencies in the way
that the information released was redacted.
I have asked ‘What do They Know’ to remove those documents. Please see
attached a copy of my letter of 21 July and updated versions of the
minutes of those meetings, with revised redactions, to replace those
documents sent to you previously. If you have made copies of the documents
as they were initially shared with you can I please ask that you destroy
those copies?
I have written to the ICO separately about this matter.
Please accept my apologies for the inconvenience.
Thank you.
Alan Addison
New logo smal Alan Addison
Team Leader - FOI
Ministerial Correspondence and Public Enquiries
Department of Health and Social Care,
39 Victoria Street, London SW1H 0EU
E: [1][email address] T: 020 7210 5285
This e-mail and any attachments is intended only for the attention of the
addressee(s). Its unauthorised use, disclosure, storage or copying is not
permitted. If you are not the intended recipient, please destroy all
copies and inform the sender by return e-mail. Any views expressed in this
message are not necessarily those of the Department of Health and Social
Care. Please note: Incoming and outgoing email messages are routinely
monitored for compliance with our policy on the use of electronic
communications.
References
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Louise Bicknell left an annotation ()
In respect of the redaction of names the ICO ruled that while there was a legitimate interest in disclosure they did not consider such disclosure was necessary. This was done without the ICO asking my reasons for requesting this information. So beware in future that the ICO can make a decision, presumably having had further input from the DHSC, but without asking for input on the point from the requestor. Reference IC-232427-T3S1
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Louise Bicknell left an annotation ()
To be referred to the ICO