Use of NHS logo by Vote Leave

The request was partially successful.

Freedom of Information Dept
Department of Health

I refer to the leaflet distributed to all households by the Vote Leave campaign in respect of the recent referendum which portrayed that £350m per week paid to the EU might otherwise be diverted to the National Health Service. In making this claim the copyrighted NHS logo was incorporated into that message in the leaflet. The same message and graphic was used on the side of the much televised campaign bus as shown at this link:

http://m.voanews.com/a/spy-chiefs-britai...

In an email dated 21 June 2016 from a member of staff at the NHS Brand and Identity Helpline, I was provided with confirmation that the use of the logo was unauthorised for this purpose in the following terms;

“The letters ?NHS? and the NHS logo are registered UK trade marks. As such, they should only be used by NHS organisations, or on services and information where the NHS has involvement.”

“The organisation you refer to is not authorised to use the NHS trademark, or an adaptation of it. The Department of Health is in contact with Vote Leave about misuse of the NHS brand.”

“The NHS Identity (letters and logo) generates high levels of trust and reassurance among patients and the public. Therefore, please be reassured we take unauthorised use, or adaptation of the NHS trademark, very seriously.”

“NHS Brand and Identity Helpline
[email address]
Tel: 020 7972 5250
www.nhsidentity.nhs.uk

Under the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act, please provide the information held by the DH in respect of the use of the NHS logo in this material This information will be located within copies of communications between DH and Vote Leave, along with records of meetings and telephone calls.

Please also provide copies of any related communication between the DH and any other public body including the Advertising Standards Agency or the Electoral Commission.

Yours faithfully,

Dr Paul Thornton

Do Not Reply,

Thank you for contacting the Department of Health.

This is an acknowledgement - please do not reply to this email.

Where a reply is appropriate, we aim to send one within 18 working days,
or 20 working days if your query is a Freedom of Information request or
complaint.

If you have contacted the Department of Health about a current health or
social care campaign, please visit the [1]GOV.UK website, the UK
Government’s official information website, where a response may have been
published.

If your enquiry is about a medical matter, please contact NHS 111 or visit
[2]NHS Choices, or contact your GP surgery.

For general health information you may also find it helpful to refer to
[3]GOV.UK, which includes the Department of Health's [4]'What we
do' section.

Please note that the Department of Health does not process complaints
about the NHS or social services. If you wish to make a complaint about a
healthcare professional, an NHS organisation or a social care provider,
please visit the [5]'Complaints procedure' page on the GOV.UK website.

 
You can find out more about the Department’s commitments from our
[6]Personal Information Charter.

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1 Attachment

Dear Mr Thornton,

Please find attached the Department's response to your recent FOI request.

Yours sincerely,

Alison Tingle
Freedom of Information Officer
Department of Health

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Your ref FOI-1040141

Alison Tingle
Freedom of Information Officer
Department of Health

Dear Ms Tingle,

Thank you for your letter of the 26th June 2016 advising of your intention to withhold the information you hold in respect of the use of the NHS logo by the Vote leave campaign.

I would be grateful if you would regard this as a request for review of that decision.

To the extent that part of the information requested does genuinely fall under the provisions of Section 42, I do not pursue that part of the information. However, information contained in communications between DH and the Vote Leave campaign (or any other third party apart from legal advisors to the DH) cannot be regarded as carrying the protection of legal professional privilege and so this exemption cannot be engaged for much of the information requested. Please identify and publish any information that has been incorrectly categorised in that regard.

I do, however, continue to pursue all of the information that you have withheld that you perceive as exempt under Section 41 or Section 43(1).

In respect of section 41, you have provided no substantiation that Vote Leave provided part of the disputed information to you under any request for confidentiality, certainly not under any terms that provide the information with the qualities that need to accrue for a lawful duty of confidentiality to be engaged, and certainly no grounds to suggest that the department should or could contract itself out of the FOIA provisions by requesting or accepting this information from Vote Leave under an unchallenged claim of confidentiality.

Is a claim of confidentiality persists, have you approached the Vote Leave campaign to seek their consent to the publication of the information in response to this request? The terms of their response will impact the validity of the claimed exemption and the public interest arguments.

In respect of section 43(1), you have provided no clarification of exactly what documentation you hold in this matter. You have provided no clarification of the nature of the commercial interest that you perceive requires protection. You have provided no clarification of the mechanism by which publication would be detrimental to that commercial interest. Nor have you provided any evidence of the extent of such detriment. Similarly, you have provided no clarification of how that commercial interest would be protected if you continue to withhold the documentation, nor the extent of that protection.

As the information is in the possession of the Vote Leave campaign, there are no grounds for withholding the information from the wider public. Have DH provided information to Vote Leave that would be of significant detriment to the commercial interest of the DH?

Without the above clarification, engagement of the exemptions is unsubstantiated. But in addition, the public interest analysis is wholly inadequate and should be re undertaken.

If you continue to claim that information that would be detrimental to the commercial interest of the DH has been placed in the guardianship of the vote leave campaign, there is an additional public interest in publication so that openness and public scrutiny can further protect the use of the NHS logo. If the Vote Leave campaign threatened control of the use of the NHS logo there is a further clear public interest in this information being placed in the public domain.

Yours sincerely,

Dr Paul Thornton

Doole, Tony,

Dear Dr Thornton

Thank you for your email below in which you requested an Internal Review into the handling of your original request.

We will aim to provide you with a reply within the next 20 working days.

Yours sincerely

Tony Doole
Senior Casework Manager
Freedom of Information Team
Department of Health
79 Whitehall
LONDON SW1A 2NS

show quoted sections

Dear Mr Doole,

I refer to your response of the 19th July 2016. The 20 day period for your internal review is now past.

Is it your intention to provide a substantive review response?

Yours sincerely,

Dr Paul Thornton

Doole, Tony,

Dear Dr Thornton

Thank you for your email today (as below). Please accept my apologies for the delay in responding to date.

I should explain that the Department of Health (the DH) normally complies with the ICO's best practice guidance in replying to requests for Internal Reviews within 20 working days from receipt. In this instance, however, the Review is taking a little longer than this normal target. I estimate that we should be able to provide you with a reply within the next 10 working days. I will, of course, let you know of any slippage to this timetable.

Yours sincerely,

Tony Doole
Senior Casework Manager
Freedom of Information Team
Department of Health
79 Whitehall
LONDON SW1A 2NS

show quoted sections

Mr Tony Doole
Senior Casework Manager
Freedom of Information Team
Department of Health
79 Whitehall
LONDON SW1A 2NS

Dear Mr Doole,

I received your email of the 19th August that is on line here:
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/u...

The period within which you were hoping to respond further has now passed. This was itself beyond the period that you normally set yourself in these matters.

Significant press comment in respect of the claimed 350m pounds per week that was made to appear to be endorsed by the NHS, continues to persist in the media. The use of the NHS logo is an issue that is unequivocally not only of interest to the public but it is in the public interest that the information be published.

I would be grateful if you would seek to resolve the obstruction that is thwarting your intentions.

Yours sincerely,

Dr Paul Thornton

Doole, Tony,

Dear Dr Thornton

Thank you for your email below. I am sorry that our reply is delayed beyond our normal targets. However, you will appreciate that we are having to review a substantial amount of information falling within scope of your request before we can complete our internal review.

We hope to be able to provide you with a response w/c 19 September. Once again, please accept my apologies for the delay.

Yours sincerely,

Tony Doole
Freedom of Information Team
Department of Health

show quoted sections

Dear Mr Doole,

I acknowledge your reply of the 9th of September and accept your apology.

But, contrary to your assumption, I have no reason to “appreciate that a substantial amount of information needs to be reviewed”. The department’s initial response provided no indication at all of the nature or scale of the information held.

The terms of my enquiry are quite limited. It seems unlikely that it engages a substantial number of documents. The department would have claimed exemption under FOI14 if the quantity of material was such that it could not reasonably be provided within the required timescales.

The documentation should have been identified, located, and categorized according to the exemption claimed in the course of the initial consideration. Little additional workload should have been entailed in that regard for the review, even if the quantity of material is more substantial than I imagine. We should certainly be beyond that stage now.

Against that background your suggestion that up to 40 days or more overall, (2 more weeks), might be required to provide the response to the internal review request does not appear to fulfil the “exceptional circumstances” that are required under the code of practice for such delay.

Perhaps you could clarify and improve your expected target for the provision of the information?

Yours sincerely,

Dr Paul Thornton

Doole, Tony,

Dear Dr Thornton

Thank you for your email below following mine dated 9 September.

Given the Department engaged qualified exemptions to withhold material falling within scope of your request, we are currently re-assessing the balance of the public interest and consulting key third parties for views. In light of that, it is unlikely the Department will be able to provide you with the outcome of its internal review until w/c 19 September.

I am sorry I cannot add anything further at this stage. Once again, I am sorry for the on-going delay.

Yours sincerely,

Tony Doole
Senior Casework Manager
Freedom of Information Team
Department of Health
79 Whitehall
LONDON SW1A 2NS

show quoted sections

Tony Doole
Senior Casework Manager
Freedom of Information Team
Department of Health
79 Whitehall
LONDON SW1A 2NS

Dear Mr Doole,

Use of NHS Logo by Vote leave

I hope I am proved wrong but It would appear that your further extended deadline for a response to my request for internal review is again going to be pass unfulfilled.

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

If you remain unable to provide your substantive response, I would be grateful if you would identify the "key third parties" with whom you have consulted, the guidance that you are seeking from them and which of those third parties are still to provide responses? I would also be grateful if you would provide clarification of the material that you hold that falls under the terms of my request. You previously described the quantity of material as "substantial". Explanation of this would be helpful.

I can only observe further that you are under no obligation to publish all the information in one go. It seems highly likely that at least some of the requested information falls outwith that requiring consideration by the third parties who are yet to reply.

Yours sincerely,

Dr Paul Thornton

Doole, Tony,

Dear Dr Thornton

I am sorry we have not been able to provide you with a reply to date. However, we will aim to provide you with the outcome of your Internal Review w/c 26 September.

Once again, my apologies for the delay which falls below our normal stndards.

Yours sincerely

Tony Doole

show quoted sections

Mr Tony Doole,

It appears your email confirming that you are unable to provide the response, that I have just received, may have crossed with mine sent earlier today.
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/u...

Clarification is clearly now essential.

Yours sincerely,

Paul Thornton

Doole, Tony,

I am unavailable until Tuesday 27 September.

 

If the matter relates to an Internal Review challenge or an Information
Commissioner complaint, please email the following mailbox, ensuring you
copy me in at the same time:

 

[email address]

 

Thank you

 

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Dear Mr Doole,

Use of NHS Logo by Vote Leave

Just a note to observe that the week commencing 26th September is rushing to it's conclusion. The internal review requested over ten weeks ago has still not been received and you have not provided the clarification that I requested in my email last week that is here.

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

I am reluctant to avoidably add to the burden on the Information Commissioners Office. When providing clarification, would you like to suggest a realistic date by which it would be reasonable for the Information Commissioners Office to be informed if the appropriate response is not provided?

Yours sincerely,

Dr Paul Thornton

Doole, Tony,

I am unavailable until Monday 3 October.

 

If the matter relates to an Internal Review challenge or an Information
Commissioner complaint, please email the following mailbox, ensuring you
copy me in at the same time:

 

[email address]

 

Thank you

 

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Incoming and outgoing e-mail messages are routinely monitored for
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FOI Dept
DH

Dear Sirs,

Use of NHS Logo by Vote Leave

I am writing to make you aware that I have written to your colleague Mr Tony Doole. My email to him is on line at the following link.
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/u...

As you will see, I have received an "out of office" response.

As my email relates to an overdue response for a request for internal review, Mr Doole's message advises that I should contact an alternative email address. Unfortunately, but with good reason, the "WhatDoTheyKnow" facility has stripped that email address.

I hope that it is the same as the one being used now. Perhaps you can assist him?

Yours faithfully,

Dr Paul Thornton

Do Not Reply,

Thank you for contacting the Department of Health.

This is an acknowledgement - please do not reply to this email.

Where a reply is appropriate, we aim to send one within 18 working days,
or 20 working days if your query is a Freedom of Information request or
complaint.

If you have contacted the Department of Health about a current health or
social care campaign, please visit the [1]GOV.UK website, the UK
Government’s official information website, where a response may have been
published.

If your enquiry is about a medical matter, please contact NHS 111 or visit
[2]NHS Choices, or contact your GP surgery.

For general health information you may also find it helpful to refer to
[3]GOV.UK, which includes the Department of Health's [4]'What we
do' section.

Please note that the Department of Health does not process complaints
about the NHS or social services. If you wish to make a complaint about a
healthcare professional, an NHS organisation or a social care provider,
please visit the [5]'Complaints procedure' page on the GOV.UK website.

 
You can find out more about the Department’s commitments from our
[6]Personal Information Charter.

show quoted sections

Incoming and outgoing e-mail messages are routinely monitored for
compliance with the Department of Health's policy on the use of electronic
communications. For more information on the Department of Health's e-mail
policy click here http://www.dh.gov.uk/terms

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References

Visible links
1. https://www.gov.uk/government/announceme...
2. http://www.nhs.uk/
3. https://www.gov.uk/government/organisati...
4. https://www.gov.uk/government/organisati...
5. https://www.gov.uk/government/organisati...
6. https://www.gov.uk/government/organisati...

Doole, Tony,

2 Attachments

Dear Dr Thornton

 

Please find attached (above) the Department of Health’s reply following
your request for Internal Review, with apologies for the delay.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Tony Doole

Senior Casework Manager

Freedom of Information Team

Department of Health

79 Whitehall

LONDON SW1A 2NS

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