NHS Commissioning Board

The complainant has made a two part request for information relating to a complaint he submitted to NHS England, and information relating to its decision not to accept his reason for not attending any of the medical practices offered to him. NHS England withheld all the information, citing the exemption under section 40(1) (personal information) of the FOIA as its basis for doing so. The complainant considers NHS England’s reasons for withholding the requested information are neither valid nor fair. The complainant is also concerned that NHS England has not complied with its obligations under section 1(1), section 10(1) and section 17(1) of the FOIA. The Commissioner’s decision is that NHS England has complied with its obligations under section 1(1), section 10(1) and section 17(1) of the FOIA. The Commissioner also finds that the requested information was exempt from disclosure under section 40(1) of the FOIA but NHS England should have cited section 40(5)(a) to neither confirm nor deny whether it holds the requested information. The Commissioner does not require the public authority to take any steps as a result of this decision notice. Information Tribunal appeal EA/2018/0151 dismissed.