Removal of word woman from NHS site

NHS England did not have the information requested.

Dear NHS England,

This report claims that NHS is scrubbing the use of women from many parts of the NHS website.
https://reclaimthenet.org/s-to-avoid-cau...
archive https://web.archive.org/web/202206301746...

Is there a plan to remove the word woman from various pages?
Why is this?
Who made the decision?
Please include any research that has been done to show that women believe this to be a good idea.

Yours faithfully,

Cathy Fox

CONTACTUS, England (NHS ENGLAND & NHS IMPROVEMENT - X24), NHS England

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FOITEAMCRMMAILBOX (NHS ENGLAND & NHS IMPROVEMENT - X24), NHS England

Dear Cathy Fox,

Thank you for your communication dated 01 July 2022.

NHS England has assessed your communication as a request under the Freedom
of Information (FOI) Act 2000. As such, your request is being dealt with
under the terms of the FOI Act, and has been allocated the following
reference number: FOI-2207-1789857.

Your exact request was:

“This report claims that NHS is scrubbing the use of women from many parts
of the NHS website.
https://reclaimthenet.org/s-to-avoid-cau...
archive
https://web.archive.org/web/202206301746...

Is there a plan to remove the word woman from various pages?
Why is this?
Who made the decision?
Please include any research that has been done to show that women believe
this to be a good idea.”

NHS England may hold information relevant to your request.  However, we
are unable to begin processing your request without further clarification.

Under Section 1(3) of the FOI Act, an authority is not obliged to comply
with an FOI request when it reasonably requires further information in
order to identify and locate the information requested.

As such, we would be grateful if you could clarify:

• Which webpage you are referring to as the link provided appears to be
a third party webpage and not an NHS website. 
• Please be aware if you are referring to the main NHS website: [1]The
NHS website - NHS (www.nhs.uk) this would fall under NHS Digital so
you would need to re-direct your request to them directly.

Please be assured we are keen to assist with your enquiry. However, we
cannot guarantee that Section 12 or any other exemptions under the FOI act
will not apply to any further information requested.

Please send your clarified request to [2][NHS England request email] quoting
your reference number as it appears in the subject bar.

Yours sincerely,

Freedom of Information
Communications Team
Office of the Chairs, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Operating Officer

NHS England
PO Box 16738
REDDITCH
B97 9PT

Tel: 0300 311 22 33
Email: [3][NHS England request email]

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Dear FOITEAMCRMMAILBOX (NHS ENGLAND & NHS IMPROVEMENT - X24),

Thankyou for your reply. I have written to NHS digital to ask for that information.
1. In the reply NHS digital was described as a 3rd party website, please could you detail the legal and working relationship between NHS and NHS digital.
2. is it possible that NHS digital made decisions on this matter with no referral to the NHS?

Yours sincerely,

Cathy Fox

FOITEAMCRMMAILBOX (NHS ENGLAND & NHS IMPROVEMENT - X24), NHS England

Dear Cathy Fox,

Thank you for your communication.

NHS England has assessed your communication as a request under the Freedom
of Information (FOI) Act 2000. As such, please be assured that your
request is being dealt with under the terms of the FOI Act and will be
answered within twenty working days.

For further information regarding the FOI Act, please refer to the
Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) website. For further information
regarding NHS England and the information it publishes please visit our
website here.

If you have any queries about this request or wish to contact us again,
please email [1][NHS England request email] and the message will be
forwarded appropriately. Please remember to quote the above reference
number in any future communications.

Please do not reply to this email. This message has been sent from a
central mailbox. To communicate with NHS England regarding Freedom of
Information (FOI) requests, enquiries or complaints we ask these are sent
directly to NHS England’s customer contact centre. This is to ensure all
communications are progressed correctly. Their postal address, telephone
number and email details are as follows: PO Box 16738, Redditch, B97 9PT;
0300 3 11 22 33, [2][NHS England request email].

Yours sincerely,

Freedom of Information
Communications Team
Strategy Directorate

NHS England
PO Box 16738
REDDITCH
B97 9PT

Tel: 0300 311 22 33
Email: [3][NHS England request email] 
 

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foicrm (NHS ENGLAND - X24), NHS England

Dear Cathy Fox,

Thank you for your communication dated 05 July 2022.

Your exact request was:

“Thankyou for your reply. I have written to NHS digital to ask for that
information.

1. In the reply NHS digital was described as a 3rd party website, please
could you detail the legal and working relationship between NHS and NHS
digital.

2. is it possible that NHS digital made decisions on this matter with no
referral to the NHS?”

NHS England may hold information relevant to your request.  However, we
are unable to begin processing your request without further clarification.

In our correspondence of 04 July 2022, we asked for clarification about
which website your request was referring to as reclaimthenet.org is not an
NHS website. As such, it is a third-party website. NHS England is unable
to comment on information provided by third parties or other
organisations. 

The FOI Act gives you the right to ask any public sector organisation for
the recorded information they have on any subject. You can ask for any
information you think a public authority may hold, and your request can be
in the form of a question, rather than a request for specific documents.  

If a public authority does not hold recorded information relating to your
question, they will advise you that they do not hold the information. 

It may also help if we explain that [1]NHS England is not the same as ‘the
[2]NHS in England’. The NHS is not a single organisation, but is made up
of a range of organisations including ourselves and [3]NHS Digital, who
are responsible for creating and maintaining the NHS’ technological
infrastructure. 

As each organisation is a separate body, we are unable to provide
information on their behalf. As such, you may wish to [4]redirect your
queries to NHS Digital. 

As previously detailed, under Section 1(3) of the FOI Act, an authority is
not obliged to comply with an FOI request when it reasonably requires
further information in order to identify and locate the information
requested. 

As such, we would be grateful if you could clarify: 

• What specific recorded information you are seeking from NHS England. 

Be assured we are keen to assist with your enquiry. However, we cannot
guarantee that Section 12 or any other exemptions under the FOI act will
not apply to any further information requested. 

Please resubmit your request, addressing the clarification points raised
above, to [5][NHS England request email] quoting your reference number as it
appears in the subject bar. 

Yours sincerely,

Freedom of Information
Communications Team
Strategy Directorate

NHS England
PO Box 16738
REDDITCH
B97 9PT

Tel: 0300 311 22 33
Email: [6][NHS England request email]

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Dear foicrm (NHS ENGLAND - X24),

I dont think any reasonable person would assume that reclaim the net was an NHS website. It was therefore obvious that the website I was referring to was the one that reclaim the net was referring to.
Can you give me the recorded information as to the you detail the legal and working relationship between NHS and NHS digital.
2. Does the NHS England have any recorded information as to how policy decisions eg on women or trans are then transferred into the public facing site NHS digital

Yours sincerely,

Cathy Fox

FOICRM (NHS ENGLAND - X24), NHS England

Dear Cathy Fox,

Thank you for your communication dated 19 August 2022. Please accept our
apologies for the delay in acknowledging your request.

NHS England has assessed your communication as a request under the Freedom
of Information (FOI) Act 2000. As such, your request is being dealt with
under the terms of the FOI Act, and has been allocated the following
reference number: FOI-2208-1822555.

Your exact request was:

“I dont think any reasonable person would assume that reclaim the net was
an NHS website. It was therefore obvious that the website I was referring
to was the one that reclaim the net was referring to.

Can you give me the recorded information as to the you detail the legal
and working relationship between NHS and NHS digital.

2. Does the NHS England have any recorded information as to how policy
decisions eg on women or trans are then transferred into the public facing
site NHS digital”

NHS England holds some information in relation to your request.

However, as the information held is in the public domain, we will refer
you to the published source under Section 21 of the FOI Act (information
accessible to the applicant by other means).

Some information relevant to your request is published as part of the
[1]Health and Social Care Act 2012. In order to be helpful, please note
that NHS Digital is referred to throughout by its trading name, the
[2]Health and Social Care Information Centre.

As detailed in our previous correspondence, [3]NHS England is not the same
as ‘the [4]NHS in England’: the NHS is not a single organisation, but is
made up of a range of organisations. [5]NHS Digital, who are responsible
for creating and maintaining the NHS’ technological infrastructure, is a
separate body. As such, you may wish to [6]redirect your queries to NHS
Digital. 

We hope this information is helpful. However, if you are dissatisfied, you
have the right to ask for an internal review. This should be requested in
writing within two months of the date of this letter. Your correspondence
should be labelled “Internal Review” and should outline your concerns
and/or the area(s) you would like the review to consider. Internal Review
requests should be sent to:

NHS England
PO Box 16738
REDDITCH
B97 9PT

Email: [7][NHS England request email]

Please quote the reference number shown above in any future
communications.

If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have
the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a
decision. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) can be
contacted [8]via their website.

Please note there is no charge for making an appeal.

Please do not reply to this email. This message has been sent from a
central mailbox. To communicate with NHS England regarding Freedom of
Information (FOI) requests, enquiries or complaints we ask these are sent
directly to NHS England’s customer contact centre. This is to ensure all
communications are progressed correctly. Their postal address, telephone
number and email details are as follows: PO Box 16738, Redditch, B97 9PT;
0300 3 11 22 33, [9][NHS England request email].

Yours sincerely,

Freedom of Information
Communications
Strategy Directorate

NHS England
PO Box 16738
REDDITCH
B97 9PT

Tel: 0300 311 22 33
Email: [10][NHS England request email] 

 

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