NHS England

The complainant made a freedom of information request to NHS England for the minutes of a meeting concerning his deceased partner’s treatment and other related matters. He received no response. When contacted by the Commissioner to ask why there had been no response, the public authority initially informed her that it had not received the request the Commissioner had attached. At a later date NHS England explained that it had in fact received a request on that day. NHS England explained that it had made clear in a previous response to the complainant when it had applied section 14(1) that it would not respond to further similar requests. Therefore, it did not consider itself obliged to respond when it received such requests and would not do so. The Commissioner’s decision is that the Trust correctly applied section 14(1) to refuse the complainant’s request and she requires no steps to be taken. She has also decided that NHS England was not obliged to issue a refusal notice in respect of the request, in accordance with section 17(6) (refusal of request) of the FOIA.