Dear General Medical Council,

Please search your stored emails for the term “parity of esteem” (not separate words) - please return copies of all emails that mention this in the last 2 years, starting with most recent. Please process these emails until a cost exemption is reached, at this point you could stop the search and release the data.

Yours faithfully,

Seymour Borealis

FOI, General Medical Council

Thank you for getting in touch. Please note this is an automated email.
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FOI, General Medical Council

Dear Seymour Borealis,

Your Information Request – IR1-4670993622

Thank you for your Email below dated 13^th November 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

From: Seymour Borealis <[FOI #1203321 email]>
Sent: Wednesday, November 13, 2024 5:42 PM
To: FOI <[email address]>
Subject: Freedom of Information request - Parity of Esteem

Dear General Medical Council, Please search your stored emails for the
term “parity of esteem” (not separate words) - please return copies of all
emails that mention this in the last 2 years, starting with most recent.
Please process these emails

Dear General Medical Council,

Please search your stored emails for the term “parity of esteem” (not separate words) - please return copies of all emails that mention this in the last 2 years, starting with most recent. Please process these emails until a cost exemption is reached, at this point you could stop the search and release the data.

Yours faithfully,

Seymour Borealis

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Please use this email address for all replies to this request:

[2][FOI #1203321 email]

Is [3][GMC request email] the wrong address for Freedom of Information requests to General Medical Council? If so, please contact us using this form:

[4]https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www....

Disclaimer: This message and any reply that you make will be published on the internet. Our privacy and copyright policies:

[5]https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www....

For more detailed guidance on safely disclosing information, read the latest advice from the ICO:

[6]https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www....

[7]https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www....

Please note that in some cases publication of requests and responses will be delayed.

If you find this service useful as an FOI officer, please ask your web manager to link to us from your organisation's FOI page.

show quoted sections

Henna Janghir, General Medical Council

Dear Seymour,

Your Information Request – IR1-4670993622

Thank you for your email dated 13 November 2024. I have considered your
request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA).

I refer to my previous email correspondence dated 24 October 2024 relating
to your information requests IR1-4614472129, IR1-4614472280,
IR1-4614472385, IR1-4625865305, IR1-4629605473 and IR1-4633736611.

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.

Aggregation of requests

When a public authority estimates whether the appropriate limit is likely
to be exceeded, the [1]Freedom of Information and Data Protection
(Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004 states that it can include
the costs of complying with two or more requests so long as the requests:

• Relate, to any extent, to the same or similar information, and

• Are received within any period of 60 consecutive working days.

Please note that I am including your information requests made on 1
October, 2 October, 10 October, 11 October 2024 and 13 November 2024 when
determining whether the ‘appropriate limit’ has been exceeded. These
requests relating to the regulation of Physician Associates and/or
Anaesthesia Associates. I believe your current request relates to the same
information. These requests have been made within a period of 60
consecutive working days.

The exemption

As explained in my email dated 24 October 2024, I believe the relevant
exemption applies at s.12, meaning we’re not to comply with a request if
we estimate that the cost of doing so would exceed the appropriate limit.
For instance, by just focusing on your request dated 1 October 2024 where
you have asked “Please provide any intelligence gathered over the last 12
months from information on X (formerly Twitter). This may include internal
emails, reports, or any other documents that mention or reference posts on
X, particularly regarding patient safety, consultation delays, or MAPs”, I
carried out a search for records containing the exact phrase ‘X’ and
‘Physician Associates’ or ‘Anaesthesia Associates’ which returned 36,000
results. I would have to manually check each record to ensure that it fits
within the scope of your request. It would take around one minute to
review each record and any corresponding documents. 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.

Therefore, s.12 FOIA applies when considering your requests collectively
in accordance with the aggregation rules set out above.

Advice and assistance

You can focus solely on one of the above requests, or one query contained
within any of your requests. 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 [2][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 [3]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: [4][email address]

Tel: 0161 923 6710

Website: [5]www.gmc-uk.org

From: FOI
Sent: Thursday, November 14, 2024 2:18 PM
To: Seymour Borealis <[FOI #1203321 email]>
Subject: RE: Freedom of Information request - Parity of Esteem

Dear Seymour Borealis,

Your Information Request – IR1-4670993622

Thank you for your Email below dated 13^th November 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 [6][GMC request email].

Kind regards,

Information Access Team

General Medical Council

3 Hardman Street

Manchester

M3 3AW

From: Seymour Borealis <[7][FOI #1203321 email]>
Sent: Wednesday, November 13, 2024 5:42 PM
To: FOI <[8][email address]>
Subject: Freedom of Information request - Parity of Esteem

Dear General Medical Council, Please search your stored emails for the
term “parity of esteem” (not separate words) - please return copies of all
emails that mention this in the last 2 years, starting with most recent.
Please process these emails

Dear General Medical Council,

Please search your stored emails for the term “parity of esteem” (not separate words) - please return copies of all emails that mention this in the last 2 years, starting with most recent. Please process these emails until a cost exemption is reached, at this point you could stop the search and release the data.

Yours faithfully,

Seymour Borealis

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Please use this email address for all replies to this request:

[9][FOI #1203321 email]

Is [10][GMC request email] the wrong address for Freedom of Information requests to General Medical Council? If so, please contact us using this form:

[11]https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www....

Disclaimer: This message and any reply that you make will be published on the internet. Our privacy and copyright policies:

[12]https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www....

For more detailed guidance on safely disclosing information, read the latest advice from the ICO:

[13]https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www....

[14]https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www....

Please note that in some cases publication of requests and responses will be delayed.

If you find this service useful as an FOI officer, please ask your web manager to link to us from your organisation's FOI page.

show quoted sections