Notification of infectious diseases

The request was successful.

Dear Public Health England,

Please explain how it is that the number of recorded cases of covid19 total 13077 for week 10 to week 45 and 87 for week 46. This is clearly far below the number of cases we are hearing about in the media.

Please explain

Yours faithfully,

Jane Westover

FOI, Public Health England

OFFICIAL
Dear Jane Westover,

We acknowledge receipt of your email and request for information, which will be treated as a request for information under statutory access legislation.

Please note that requests under the Freedom of Information Act and the Environmental Information Regulations (EIRs) will receive a response within 20 working days from the day following the date of receipt of your request.

If the request is for your personal data, your request has been handled as a data subject access request (SAR) under Article 15 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), then we will respond within one month of the receipt of the request.

Public Health England (PHE) is responsible for providing guidance and advice to government and front-line services for all aspects of public health. It is a designated Category 1 responder organisation under the Civil Contingency Act and this specifically includes the COVID-19 response, providing clinical expertise and wider public health advice and guidance across national and local government, the NHS and third sector. As such, you may experience delays when making statutory information access requests during the pandemic.

We will aim to address all requests promptly and within the required response timeframes. However when we are unable to meet the response timeframe we will keep requesters updated on a revised expected timescale for a response to their request. The Information Commissioner recognises this position in its recent guidance, see link: https://ico.org.uk/global/data-protectio...

Public Accountability Unit
Public Health England
[PHE request email]
Tel: 020 8327 6920
www.gov.uk/phe Follow us on Twitter @PHE uk

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FOI, Public Health England

OFFICIAL
Dear Jane Westover,

Thank you for your email.

Public Health England can confirm it does not hold the information you have specified.
Under Section 16 of the FOI Act, public authorities have a duty to provide advice and assistance. Accordingly, you may wish to refer to the 'Daily updates for data and insights on Coronavirus '. This can be accessed at:
https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/...

Yours sincerely

FOI Team
Public Accountability Unit
Public Health England
[PHE request email]
Tel: 020 8327 6920
www.gov.uk/phe Follow us on Twitter @PHE uk

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Dear FOI,

I do not understand how PHE can say they do not hold this information.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk...

This a link to the information - which clearly says Public Health England. I was hoping they could explain why it is that from week 10 to week 45 there are only 13077 recorded cases of covid 19. Since then there have been about 730 cases. This is much lower than the figures we have been given.

I hope you can bring some clarity to this, please.

Yours sincerely,

Jane Westover

FOI, Public Health England

OFFICIAL
Dear Jane Westover,

We acknowledge receipt of your email, which will be treated as a request for an internal review, following your request for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Please note we aim to complete your internal review within 20 working days from the day following the date of receipt of your request. We will notify you if we anticipate the internal review taking longer than 20 working days.

FOI Team
Public Accountability Unit
Public Health England
[PHE request email]
Tel: 020 8327 6920
www.gov.uk/phe Follow us on Twitter @PHE uk

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Amanda Johnstone left an annotation ()

Dear Jane

I see PHE have indicated they cannot explain the discrepancy between the C-19 NOID's data and the UKG figures. Clearly, they do not understand the NOID reporting system in England and Wales which is ridiculous yet not surprising.

I have just added an annotation under another similar FOI request that may explain the discrepancy. It can be accessed here:

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/n...

Hope this helps.

Regards
Amanda Johnstone

FOI, Public Health England

1 Attachment

  • Attachment

    2231 IR Linked to 2041 Explanation of supposed under declaring of Covid cases by PHE.pdf

    137K Download View as HTML

OFFICIAL
Dear Jane Westover,

Please find attached Public Health England's response to your request.

FOI Team
Public Accountability Unit
Public Health England
[PHE request email]
Tel: 020 8327 6920
www.gov.uk/phe Follow us on Twitter @PHE_uk

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