Request
I am writing to make a request in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act, to request the following information in electronic format:
Full details of all travel and subsistence claims made by the following groups of individuals including details of any conferences attended for the following groups of individuals within the Postgraduate Deaneries covered by your SHA area:
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Postgraduate Dean or equivalent
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GP Director or equivalent
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Associate Deans
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Foundation School Directors
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GP Educators
Please can you provide this level of detail for the period 2007/08, 2008/09 and 2009/2010 as well as any planned expenditure for 2010/2011.
Our Response
I refer to your email requesting information in respect of travel and subsistence claims made by groups of staff in the East Midlands Healthcare Workforce Deanery.
I can confirm in accordance with S.1 (1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) that we do hold most of the information that you have requested which you will find in the attached pdf document.
However, within the time constraints set out in Section 10 of the FOIA we have only been able to provide the following information:
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An analysis for financial years 2010-2011, 2009-2010 and 2008-2009 due to changes in our accounting systems which took effect from January 2009
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Aggregated figures in respect of the 23 Associate Post Graduate Deans, and 61 GP Educators . There are 2 part time Foundation School director posts held by three individuals over the time period and these have been set out separately. All these posts are part time, so the whole time equivalent figure is set out on the spreadsheet also
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Costs only in terms of conferences and seminars attended.
We have estimated that to collate all the information that you have requested would exceed the appropriate limit as set out in the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004. The limit set down by the regulations for public authorities is £450, which amounts to a maximum of 18 hours of search and retrieval time charged at £25.00 per hour, the hourly rate also specified in the regulations. Under section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, NHS East Midlands is therefore not obliged to provide this information to you.
It might also be helpful to put the figures in the spreadsheet into some context and I would add the following detail. The majority of the expenses set out will relate to business meetings in respect of medical training across the East Midlands rather than conferences or individual CPD training. Trainee Doctors and training rotations are based in hospitals all over the area.
I hope that this information is of use. If you are dissatisfied with the way in which we have dealt with your request you can ask us to review our decision by writing to:-
Mr Moosa Patel
Director of Corporate Affairs
NHS East Midlands
Octavia House
Interchange Business Park
Bostock's Lane
Sandiacre
Nottingham
NG10 5QG
If at the conclusion of any review you remain dissatisfied you may complain to the Information Commissioner who can be contacted at:-
The Office of the Information Commissioner
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
