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Re London Procurement Partnership Temporary worker audit criteria

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Dr Colin Iain Campbell MBChB FRSPH

Dear Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust,

I am writing to request information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. I would be interested in any information held by your organisation regarding my request. I understand that I do not have to specify particular files or documents and it is the departments responsibility to provide the information I require. If you need further clarification please contact me via this website (or email). I would like to request the following information:

We understand from directions when placing FOIs with the London Procurement Partnership's page directly on Whatdotheyknow that Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust is the host organisation and that LPP prefers FOIs to be directed at this email address? Please clarify urgently if you wish me to forward this to an alternative source - also note that whatdotheyknow filters out emails automatically unless they are in an attachment to prevent spam.

INFORMAITON REQUEST: (You below refers to LPP)

We understand that you have used Nueven to audit recruitment agencies on your framework since 2010. We are interested in knowing more about this.

1) How much did you pay Neuven for this in 2017, and to date in 2018.
2) Could the audit criteria please be disclosed in full for health workers detailing core criteria which could cause a core fail and minor criteria.
3) Could anonymised copies of the last ten completed audit reports please be released including data on all core and minor criteria.
4) What is the job title, email address, and name of the individual within your framework who liaises with Neuven.
5) Does LPP pass these audit reports to NHS Improvement? If so how are these sent and who receives them.

I would like the information to be provided by email or on this website in electronic form. If my request is denied in whole or in part I ask that you justify all deletions by reference to specific exemptions of the act. I will also expect you to release all non-exempt material. I reserve the right to appeal your decision to withhold any information or to charge excessive fees. I would be grateful if you could confirm in writing that you have received this request. I look forward to your response within 20 working days as outlined by the statute. Many thanks for your assistance with this request.

Yours faithfully,
Dr Colin Iain Campbell MBChB FRPSH

Dr Colin Iain Campbell MBChB FRSPH

Dear Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust,

Clarification:

By audit criteria I am referring to the up to date audit criteria as of time of writing.

Yours faithfully,

Dr Colin Iain Campbell MBChB FRSPH

:FOI, Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust

Dear Sir,

Thank you for your request to Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, which we are treating as a Freedom of Information request.

Please let us know if you have any further queries or information related to this request. Our reference number for the request is FOI 72285; please quote this on all correspondence.

Yours sincerely,

Freedom of Information Team
Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust
[Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust request email]

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Dr Colin Iain Campbell MBChB FRSPH

Dear Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust's handling of my FOI request 'Re London Procurement Partnership Temporary worker audit criteria'.

I am requesting an internal review on the grounds of Guy's and St Thomas's/London Procurement Partnership's failure to respond to my Freedom of Information Act 2000 Information Request within 20 days, and am hopeful that this internal review will be undertaken promptly.

Many thanks for your help.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/r...

Yours faithfully,

Dr Colin Iain Campbell MBChB FRSPH

:FOI, Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust

1 Attachment

Dear Dr. Campbell,

Thank you for your Freedom of Information Request.
Please find attached our response.
Please also do accept our apologies for the delay.

Best wishes,

Freedom of Information Team
Guy's and St.Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust

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Dr Colin Iain Campbell MBChB FRSPH

Dear Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust's handling of my FOI request 'Re London Procurement Partnership Temporary worker audit criteria'.

In relation to the audit criteria which our members contracts are audited against our members have an overwhelming interest in knowing precisely what these are, especially, but not limited to the provisions related to IR35, demanding of payslips etc.

I would point out that you have not correctly claimed an exemption whatsoever. You have referred to commercial sensitivity which makes me suspect you mean a section 43(2) exemption?

To claim this correctly it isa requirement that you disclose:

1. The section
2. The Sub-section
3. The full public interest reasoning.
4. A full prejudice test if you feel the public interest does not favour disclosure.

I would like to provide you with the following public interest representations, and would ask that you either disclose the information, or the full public interest reasoning for claiming this qualified exemption, plus a prejudice test.

PUBLIC INTEREST REPRESENTATION:

We have already undertaken the Pre-Action Protocol of Judicial Review against NHS Improvement on the grounds of illegality (fettering discretion in addition to being beyond their powers) with respect to reaching IR35 decisions on any basis other than individual assessment taking into account the full factual matrix. We won these proceedings in preaction phase and co-authored guidance along with NHS Improvement.

We are aware that HMRC subsequently delivered a webinar attended by many NHS trusts: https://www.contractorcalculator.co.uk/l...

At which they stated that blanketing, was acceptable on 7 occasions - on six of them with no caveat whatsoever, on the seventh that the individual contractor factors could be ignored and 'role based' blanketing undertaken.

This despite the fact that the reason we won the judicial review on the basis of illegality (fettering discretion) was because of the inherent unlawfulness of this practice.

Our members, who are disproportionately from BME groups, are finding themselves blanketed inside the Off Payroll legislation in situations without legally required reasonable care, or individual assessments.

The following select committee evidence will give you further background on the sort of behaviour we have been seeing:

http://data.parliament.uk/writtenevidenc...

We are requesting the audit criteria specifically as regards IR35 as we wish to know what data you are collecting on our members, what the provisions are with respect to IR35, and what failure criteria there are in relation to this. We have seen other frameworks (and indeed SLA agreements with some hospitals) which explicitly seek to bind the fee payer to follow the public sector body's determination. That said, every single opinion we have seen on the legislation, combined with our own reading and HMRC's own comments in the private sector IR35 consultation document show that the fee payer is only empowered to make deductions where it believes the case law tests to have been met and, where they are not, it must not do this - a situation in which a contract is seeking to override a statute and the intent of parliament.

There is overwhelming public interest in the fair, and lawful, treatment of our locum members and arrangements which seek to bind the fee payer to follow the determination of the NHS trust (whether it is reached lawfully or, especially, where not) are at odds with the wording of the April 2017 Off Payroll reforms (ITEPA Chapter 10). Our workers have a right to know what steps your framework is taking in upholding blanket determinations by NHS trusts even where the fee payer disagrees (and is thus not empowered to undertake deductions).

We feel that the public interest here is so overwhelming that this part at least could not be reasonably caught by a qualified exemption and would urge you, therefore, to disclose this information. If not please give your full reasoning with respect to the representations and we will reserve the right to escalate the matter to the ICO should the explanation not prove satisfactory.

Either by addition to this request or by further FOI, if you intend to state HMRC told you this was acceptable please disclose the relevant communications withs respect to this.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/r...

Yours faithfully,

Dr Colin Iain Campbell MBChB FRSPH

:FOI, Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust

Dear Dr Campbell,

Please accept this email as acknowledgement for your request for an internal review.

Yours sincerely,

Freedom of Information Team
Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust [Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust request email]

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:FOI, Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust

1 Attachment

Dear Dr Campbell,

Thank you for your Freedom of Information Request – the response is
attached.

Please accept our apologies for the delay.

Kind regards,

Freedom of Information Team

Guy’s and St. Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust

Please reply to [1][Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust request email]

 

 

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We don't know whether the most recent response to this request contains information or not – if you are Dr Colin Iain Campbell MBChB FRSPH please sign in and let everyone know.