Dear General Medical Council,

1) What was the first year in which you employed a “social media specialist”

2) for each quarter of each year since that year, state the number of social media specialists holding employment with the GMC within each quarter

3) Why did you begin employing a social media specialist? Please also provide copies of any vacancies/job descriptions.

Yours faithfully,
SEYMOUR BOREALIS

FOI, General Medical Council

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FOI, General Medical Council

Dear Seymour Borealis,

Your Information Request – IR1-4688234648

Thank you for your Email below dated 28^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 #1208287 email]>
Sent: Thursday, November 28, 2024 7:56 PM
To: FOI <[email address]>
Subject: Freedom of Information request - Social Media Specialists

Dear General Medical Council, 1) What was the first year in which you
employed a “social media specialist” 2) for each quarter of each year
since that year, state the number of social media specialists holding
employment with the GMC within

Dear General Medical Council,

1) What was the first year in which you employed a “social media specialist”

2) for each quarter of each year since that year, state the number of social media specialists holding employment with the GMC within each quarter

3) Why did you begin employing a social media specialist? Please also provide copies of any vacancies/job descriptions.

Yours faithfully,

SEYMOUR BOREALIS

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

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

[2][FOI #1208287 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:

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

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show quoted sections

Henna Janghir, General Medical Council

Dear Seymour,

Your information requests – IR1-4635323344 and IR1-4688234648

Thank you for your emails dated 17 October 2024, your clarification email
on 14 November 2024, and 28 November 2024. I have considered your request
under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA).

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 (IR1-4614472129), 2 October (IR1-4614472280), 17 October and 13
November 2024 when determining whether the ‘appropriate limit’ has been
exceeded. These requests relate to information about the GMC’s use of
social media. These requests have been made within a period of 60
consecutive working days.

The exemption

Under the FOIA, the specific exemption which we believe applies is at
section 12. This states that we are not required to comply with a request
if we estimate that the cost of doing so would exceed the appropriate
limit.

For example, 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 and ‘GMCUK’
(which is the GMC’s username on X) and ‘patient safety’ within the last 12
months. This returned a total of 8,700 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, a total of 145 hours. 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.

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: Friday, November 29, 2024 10:32 AM
To: Seymour Borealis <[FOI #1208287 email]>
Subject: RE: Freedom of Information request - Social Media Specialists

Dear Seymour Borealis,

Your Information Request – IR1-4688234648

Thank you for your Email below dated 28^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 #1208287 email]>
Sent: Thursday, November 28, 2024 7:56 PM
To: FOI <[8][email address]>
Subject: Freedom of Information request - Social Media Specialists

Dear General Medical Council, 1) What was the first year in which you
employed a “social media specialist” 2) for each quarter of each year
since that year, state the number of social media specialists holding
employment with the GMC within

Dear General Medical Council,

1) What was the first year in which you employed a “social media specialist”

2) for each quarter of each year since that year, state the number of social media specialists holding employment with the GMC within each quarter

3) Why did you begin employing a social media specialist? Please also provide copies of any vacancies/job descriptions.

Yours faithfully,

SEYMOUR BOREALIS

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

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

[9][FOI #1208287 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