FOI - Freedom of Information Act 2000

“Another Time Consuming Minefield”

 GPC Freedom of Information Act 2000

Frequently Asked Questions – Updated August 2005

This guidance is only relevant to England, Northern Ireland and Wales – Local Copy

Update January 2005 – Nicola Heywood – nicola@devonlmc.org

 

§          A Practice Must: 1

§          A Practice Can: 1

§          A Practice Cannot: 2

§          A Practice Should. 2

§          Fees. 2

§          Staff Awareness. 2

§          Further Help. 2

§          Coming Very Soon. 3

§          Final Words of Comfort 3

§          What is the Freedom of Information Act?. 3

§          Information, Forms and Guidance. 3

 

To quote a PCT manager, equally as frustrated as many GPs and practice managers!  However failure to comply could result in fines and potentially imprisonment – hence my reason for bothering you with it.

 

From 31st October 2003 general practices were required to have a publication scheme.  If you’ve not done one, go to our website and download a template with notes which will take you a couple of hours to work through.

 

From 1st January 2005 the Act comes into full force and requires public bodies (general practices are specifically deemed as such by the Act) to respond to individuals’ requests for information.  Requests must:

 

  1. Be in writing (electronically counts)
  2. State name of the applicant and an address for correspondence
  3. Describe the information requested

 

A Practice Must:

  • Respond to a request within 20 working days. 
    When does the clock start to tick?  From the first working day after the day the request is received.
  • Inform the applicant of any charge that will be made and how it is arrived at.
  • Try to provide the information in the format requested.
  • Tell the applicant whether you hold the information sought.
  • Disclose all information unless there is an overriding reason not to.
  • State reasons for non disclosure and the exemption applied.

 

A Practice Can:

  • Ask the applicant to be more specific in their request for information.
  • Ask the applicant how they would like the information presented to them.
    Although if they don’t state you can I think supply as best suits you??
  • Refer the applicant to a third party for information where the practice is not the holder of information
    – e.g. the PCT for their annual report or for Quality Points of other practices. QUERY?
  • Refer the applicant to their publication scheme or publications if information is there
    – e.g. practice website or leaflets.
  • Appeal against any rulings made by the Information Commissioner

 

A Practice Cannot:

  • Ask the applicant why they want the information.

 

A Practice Should

  • Remind the applicant that the information is copyright and cannot be reproduced for commercial purposes.
  • Promptly request payment in advance of any charges. 
    The clock stops ticking until payment is received/cheques cleared but don’t delay paying in!
  • Ask for advice from PCT, Information Commissioner or GPC/LMC when applying an exemption or refusing to provide information.
    This is probably a case of keep asking until you get the advice you want!The LMC website will contain a record of exemptions used and their status.
  • Bear in mind the applicant can appeal to the Information Commissioner where information requests are denied or costs deemed high.  The practice will have to comply with any ruling subject to any appeal by the practice.

 

Fees

The advice on this sounds very conflicting to me and the guidance is long and complex! 

  • You cannot charge a fee for the information unless it costs more than £450 to retrieve and collate.  Maximum rate chargeable for staff time is £25 per hour in order to calculate your total costs.  You need to estimate this at the outset before carrying the work out.  Any work required to prepare the estimate can only be charged if the cost exceeds £450.
  • Under £450 GPs can charge reasonable costs for copying, printing, postage and other disbursements such as staff time for summarising and transferring into media requested.  Note you cannot charge for staff time to retrieve and collate information if total cost is under £450.
  • Note that you can ask for the charges to be paid prior to the information being disclosed.  If the charge is unpaid, then the request lapses after 3 months.
  • You can also refuse to supply the information on cost grounds if cost is greater than £450.

 

Staff Awareness

It is important that your staff are:

  • aware of the Freedom of Information Act.
  • familiar with your publication scheme and the information you publish in order to show it to patients.
  • Aware that personal information about them or patients will not be disclosed except to the individual concerned.
  • Aware that patients or staff wanting access to their personal records are entitled to do so under the Data Protection Act and should contact the Practice Manager (or whoever you appoint to carry out this task).
  • able to direct patients to write in to the Practice Manager (or whoever you appoint to carry out this task) with other requests for information.
  • Aware of their responsibility with regard to keeping. labelling and storing information correctly in accordance with practice policy.

 

Further Help

 

  • Template documents on Devon LMC website

·         Publication scheme

·         FOI Request Log

 

Coming Very Soon

  • FOI PowerPoint presentation for GPs and Staff on general awareness
  • Information audit log
  • Email policy
  • Records Management Policy
  • Guidance on Meeting Minute Keeping

 

Final Words of Comfort

§         You are not obliged by law to have the above policies however chaotic records management will not be seen as an excuse for long – you need to show that you are sorting it out.

§         PCTs are also encountering problems with the audit and many in Devon have not finished.

§         Most of the information to which FOI applies will be held by the practice manager, management team or secretaries.

§         Get in the habit of

§         filing emails you need to keep and deleting the rest on a regular basis

§         not keeping copies of information originated by someone else – they should have a copy if you need it again.  This means of course that the person originating information should decide how long it needs to be kept!

 

What is the Freedom of Information Act?

The Freedom of Information Act 2000, which came about as a result of one of the major commitments in the Labour Party’s 1997 manifesto, creates new rights of public access to information held by public authorities, as defined under the Act.

To facilitate this, it obliges such public authorities to make it clear to the public what information they hold.

·     Puts a legal requirement on NHS organisations to publish and share information

·     Allows members of the public to see what information you have stored in your practice, and to access it

·     Will grant full access rights in January 2005

·     Demands a publication scheme be in place in every NHS organisation by October of this year.

Information, Forms and Guidance

Devon LMC FOI Template - August 2003 – Doc (including update below)

FOI - Notes on Devon LMC Template - August 2003 - Doc

FOI - URGENT UPDATE to the Template – Doc (this is for those who already have a copy)

Main DOH Web Site - http://www.foi.nhs.uk/impl_indep_home.html

GPC Guidance on FOI – July 2003 - PDF

If you require help in dealing with the FOI please contact Nicola Heywood – nicola@devonlmc.org

  

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Last Updated on 26 August 2005
By John Baker Email: jb@devonlmc.org