NDA Agreements

The request was partially successful.

Dear Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust,

I am requesting the following under the 2000 FOI Act

- The number of exit agreements (resignations, dismissals, retirement etc) containing a Non Disclosure Agreement
- The total amount of money paid as lump sums (excluding any regular payments) as part of these agreements
- The largest sum paid for a single exit agreement by your Trust.

Please provide the information electronically in an Excel sheet where possible.

If it is not possible to provide the information requested please provide advice and assistance, under your Section 16 obligations, as to how I can refine my request to be included in the scope of the Act.

In any case, if you can identify ways that my request could be refined please provide further advice and assistance to indicate this.at the earliest opportunity as outlined in the ICO guidelines.

I look forward to your response within 20 working days, as stipulated by the Act.

If you have any queries please don’t hesitate to contact me via email or phone and I will be happy to clarify what I am asking for, my details are outlined below.

Best wishes,

Jake Hurfurt

FOI, Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Dear Mr Hurfurt,

Freedom of Information Act Request Acknowledgment

Thank you for contacting the Freedom of Information Office at Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. We confirm that we have received your correspondence.

Your request below is being considered and you will receive a response within the statutory timescale of 20 working days following the date on which the request was received, as defined by the Act, subject to the information not being covered by an exemption or containing reference to a third party.

For your information, the Act defines a number of exemptions which may prevent release of some or all of the information you have requested. There will be an assessment and if any of the exemption categories apply then the information will not be released. You will be informed if this is the case, including your rights of appeal.

If the information you request contains reference to a third party then they may be consulted prior to a decision being taken on whether or not to release some or all of the information to you. You will be informed if this is the case.

There may be a fee payable for this information. This will be considered and you will be informed if as fee is payable. In this event the fee must be paid before the information is processed and released. The 20 working day time limit for responses is suspended until receipt of payment. You will be informed if this is the case.
If you have made a request for information held by the Trust - we will contact you as soon as possible if we need any further information to enable us to answer your request. If we don't need any further information we will respond to you within the statutory timescale of 20 working days following the date on which the request was received.

If you have any further queries or concerns then please do not hesitate to contact us.

With best regards,

Alan Larn.

Alan Larn | communications officer (Freedom of Information) | communications department
Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | Nethermayne | Essex | SS16 5NL
01268 524900 ext 2992
[Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust request email]

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FOI, Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Dear Mr Hurfurt,

Can you please specify a date/year range for your request?

With best regards,

Alan Larn.

Alan Larn | communications officer (Freedom of Information) | communications department
Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | Nethermayne | Essex | SS16 5NL
01268 524900 ext 2992
[Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust request email]

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Dear FOI,

Please provide information for the last three years

Yours sincerely,

Jake Hurfurt

FOI, Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Understood - thanks for clarifying.

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Dear FOI,

This is long overdue. Please respond by 5pm Monday.

Yours sincerely,

Jake Hurfurt

FOI, Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Dear Mr Hurfurt,

I have just chased this again with the head of department to whom it was escalated weeks ago. I have found that the head of department is currently out of the office, so I have attempted to find out who might have sent her information and get it sent direct to me.

I will contact you as soon as I know anything more.

With regards and apologies for the continuing delay.

Alan Larn.

Alan Larn | communications officer (Freedom of Information) |
Communications Department
Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | Nethermayne | Essex | SS16 5NL
01268 524900 ext 2992
[Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust request email]

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FOI, Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Hurfurt,

Thank you for your recent Freedom of Information request dated 23 April 2019, which has been handled under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA).
Your request and our response are as follows:
 
Your request:

- The number of exit agreements (resignations, dismissals, retirement etc) containing a Non Disclosure Agreement
- The total amount of money paid as lump sums (excluding any regular payments) as part of these agreements
- The largest sum paid for a single exit agreement by your Trust.

Subsequently, you refined your request as follows:

- Please provide information for the last three years

Our response:

Please see the attached file 19-039.xlsx:

The largest single payment was approximately £17,000.

Please note that under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, any data that is below five would be deemed identifiable under section 40(2) of the Act. Releasing the requested information would risk making it possible to identify the individuals concerned.

The number of individual agreements per year is therefore exempt from disclosure under section 40 (Personal Information) of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), as the information constitutes data as of a third party. Similarly, we are not able to specify in shich year the figure indicated above was paid.

Section 40(2) provides that personal data about third parties is exempt information if one of the conditions set out in section 40(3) is satisfied. Under the FOIA, disclosure of this information would breach the fair processing principles contained in the Data Protection Act 2018/General Data Protection Regulation where it would be unfair to that person.
I hope that the response that the Trust has provided is satisfactory, however if you are dissatisfied with the way in which your Freedom of Information request has been dealt with you can request an internal review. Please email [email address] within 40 working days with clarification of what you would like to be reviewed. We will aim to provide a review response within 20 working days.

If you remain dissatisfied, you have the right under section 50 of the Act to apply to the Information Commissioner to seek resolution to the matter. Further details can be found on their website: https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/.

Re-use of Public Sector Information Regulations 2015 – General statement of compliance

The Trust for its part is happy for you to reuse any of the information supplied to you in compliance with the Open Government Licence (OGL) terms:  Please click here for further details http://nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents... .  We do not permit the forwarding or sale of staff/departmental contact details and a specific Re-use of Information Regulations request is required for such purposes.

If relevant, you will need the permission of other information owners.  This can occur when you receive a document which is co-authored or where the ownership lies with another organisation.  Provision under both the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and Environmental Information Regulations 2004 does not entitle you to re-use the information without appropriate permissions.  Use must be in compliance with an Open Government Licence or other agreed terms.

We ask that you take a couple of minutes and complete a short survey in relation to your FOI request. The questions relate to your request and how it was handled and the response received. Click here.

Kind regards,

Alan Larn.

Alan Larn | communications officer (Freedom of Information) | Communications Department Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | Nethermayne | Essex | SS16 5NL
01268 524900 ext 2992
[Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust request email]

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