Our guide to FOI

The Freedom of Information Act does not allow people to obtain personal information about patients or our staff. It does not change the right of patients to protection of their patient confidentiality in accordance with Article 8 of the Human Rights Convention, the Data Protection Act 2018 and common law. Maintaining the legal right to patient confidentiality continues to be an important commitment on our part. To help with this, we have appointed someone who is called a Caldicott Guardian, and who has responsibility to ensure the protection of patient confidentiality throughout the Trust in accordance with your legal rights.

Under the Data Protection Act 2018, you are entitled to access your medical records or any other personal information held about you.

If you wish to obtain information from Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust under the Data Protection Act 2018, please visit the accessing your information page for contact information and advice about requesting personal records.

All requests for information must be made in writing in one of the following ways:

Post:

FOI Officer
Trust Headquarters
East Surrey Hospital
Redhill, Surrey
RH1 5RH

E-mail: sash.foi@nhs.net

Please ensure that you provide your name and an address for correspondence when making your request, this can be an email address.

It will be helpful to us and speed up the processing of your request if you could be as specific as possible about the information you require. However, you don’t have to state why you want the information. For example, if you are asking for statistical data please state if you would prefer to receive the data in calendar or financial year format etc.

If we are not clear about what information you are requesting we will contact you to seek clarification. Please respond promptly as it will otherwise delay our response. If we do not hear from you within three months we will assume you no longer require the information and will close the request.

All requests for information will be handled centrally by the Trust’s FOI team.

Before you make a request

Our Guide to Information (Publications Scheme) has information routinely asked for by members of the public.

Before making a formal request to us, please check if we have already provided the information on this website.

When will I receive a response?

In compliance with the Act, we will endeavour to respond to your request within 20 working days. The ‘clock’ starts the first working day following the receipt of your request.

If we are unable to provide the information requested within 20 working days, we will advise why, and provide a date by when we expect to be able to respond.

What if I’m not happy with my response?

If you are not satisfied with the response to your FOI request you may request an independent internal review by an appropriate senior member of staff at the Trust, who has had no involvement in dealing with your original request. We aim to deal with appeals within 20 working days following receipt.

If you wish to appeal against this decision, please set out your grounds for review in writing and address to:

Freedom of Information – Information Access Appeal
Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust
Trust Headquarters
East Surrey Hospital
Canada Avenue
Redhill, Surrey, RH1 5RH

Emails should be clearly marked ‘Information access appeal’ and sent to: sash.foi@nhs.net

Please remember to quote your FOI reference number in all correspondence.

Should you remain dissatisfied following an internal review, you would have the right to appeal to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). However, I should point out that under section 50(2)(a) of the Freedom of Information Act, the ICO is not obliged to consider your appeal unless you have already completed an internal review.

Click here for further details about the Freedom of Information appeals process

You can write to the Information Commissioner’s Office at the following address:

Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House,
Water Lane,Wilmslow,
Cheshire, SK9 5AF

Tel: 0303 123 1113

Website: www.ico.org.uk

We are able to charge fees for requests, outlined in the Freedom of Information Fee Regulations.

We will generally only charge you for hard copies or copying onto media, e.g. CD. The charges will vary according to how information is made available.

Legally, if the cost of obtaining and sending you the information is more than £450, we do not have to provide you with the information you requested. This amount is based on the DCA’s (Department of Constitutional Affairs) regulations of a national cost of 18 hours work at £25 per hour.

In certain cases, we may provide you with the information requested even if the estimated cost exceeds the limit above. In this case we can either provide the information at no charge, charge you the full cost or charge you the difference between the total cost and the limit above.

Material available through this publication scheme is subject to Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust copyright unless otherwise indicated.

Unless indicated on the material, it may be reproduced free of charge in any format or medium, provided it is reproduced accurately and is not used in a misleading manner.

Where any of the copyright items in this scheme are being re-published or copied to others, you must identify the source of the material and acknowledge the copyright status.

We reserve the right to make a charge for any information that falls within the remit of the Re-use of Public Sector Information Regulations 2005.

Permission to reproduce material does not extend to any material accessed through the publication scheme that is the copyright of third parties. Authorisation to reproduce such material must be sought from the copyright holders concerned.

The Environmental Information Regulations allows the public to request environmental information from public authorities.

The information covered can be divided into the following six main areas:

1. The state of the elements of the environment, such as air, water, soil, land, fauna (including human beings)
2. Emissions and discharges, noise, energy, radiation, waste and other such substances
3. Policies, plans, and agreements affecting or likely to affect the state of the elements of the environment
4. Reports, cost-benefit and economic analyses
5. The state of human health and safety, contamination of the food chain
6. Cultural sites and built structures (to the extent they may be affected by the state of the elements of the environment)