8/3/2019 Written Evidence From Frimley Park Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

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Frimley Park Hospital NHS Foundation Trust Response to Justice Committee Review into FOI Act 2000.

Question ResponseDoes theFreedom of

Information Actwork effectively?

No, the fact that an individual is able to request any information from an organisation has resulted in companiescompiling spread sheets (Examples below) and demanding that these are completed by the organisation under

FOI. In all cases, the information being requested is held in numerous places and has to be pulled together andextracted in order to respond to the request. This feels as though we are creating information to respond to therequest rather than providing information already held.

The act should be more heavily focussed on providing copies of information already created/compiled ratherthan extraction and collation of information to respond to each request. It would also be of particular use toprovide clear guidance to public authorities on exactly how far an organisation is required to go in relation to

creating new documents from information held in relation to FOI requests.

E-health Media, Netsi Plus, Kable Direct:

FOI Quest ions.xls ICT spend.xls FOIAcuteFTver97.xls

The FOIA does not work effectively for an organisation where it is expected to spend up to 18 hours respondingto each request, particularly when up to 300 requests are received per year. This is a massive strain onresources.Not being able to confirm the identity of the individual prohibits the ability to correctly apply the public interesttest.

What are thestrengths andweaknesses of

the Freedom ofInformation Act?

Weakness1. Cannot confirm the identity of the person requesting the information, nor what they wish to do with the

information. An organisation would like to know where its information is going and who has access to it,

rather than find out from the local news or national news. Difficult to collate similar requests from the sameperson as you are unable to confirm the identity of the requestor. (Attached 5 emails).

2. Inability to charge for requests take into account the resources and effort an organisation has to put in to

8/3/2019 Written Evidence From Frimley Park Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

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process requests for information. The ability to charge for request for information would prevent one

individual emailing over 400 organisations at the same time (Round Robins) as well as ensuring individualswho genuinely want information are able to obtain it3. Used to by-pass other processes (e.g. legal procedures, complaints, courts, staff disciplinary, etc.).

Specifically there have been instances of private investigators requesting information from NHSorganisations about patients who have died without a next of kin and requests from Police in relation tocriminal investigations.

4. Not being able to include time taken to redact and copy information when assessing whether a request willexceed the appropriate limit (18 hours) e.g. copies of Trust board meeting minutes and all supporting papers

12 months 25 papers each meeting (Request 207)5. Used by journalists and MPs to produce negative stories about organisations.6. Information provided to requesters is often taken out of context in order to make headlines in papers.StrengthsIt does holds the organisation to accountMakes an organisation respond to requests for information when in the pastEnables individuals to know how an organisation operates

Is the Freedomof InformationAct operating inthe way that itwas intended to?

No, the act is being regularly used by private companies to obtain information about competitors, to tout forbusiness, to contact organisations for direct marketing, used by journalists to find newsworthy stories, used byMPs to obtain information to support election campaigns.

Example request:How many complaints has your organisation received from either your employees or members of the publicabout haunted buildings, ghosts or other paranormal phenomena in your premises or in buildings managed byyou? Please break down complaints by year.

1. What action was taken to address these complaints?

2. How much did this action cost. Please provide the amount spent for each action.

February 2012