Information requested

  1. The number of Freedom of Information requests you have received in the past six months, broken down by calendar month or a similar measure.
    1. Number of these Freedom of Information requests which were issued after the 20 day working day limit.
  2. Number of staff employed overall by your organisation (rounded estimate would be acceptable)

I am also seeking information on the resources your body uses to answer an FOI request:

  1. Number of staff members who are involved in generating the answer to an FOI (assuming those who hold information in the organisation at 0)
    1. Of these staff members how many have answering FOI requests as their primary responsibility.
  2. If possible please provide a simplified description of the approvals process an FOI answer runs through before being issued. Please list job title and directorate of those who approve (I am not seeking names and contact details)
  3. Can you provide details on the training a staff member receives before they begin handling FOIs:
    1. Are they trained in-house or by an external agency? If the latter can you provide details.
    2. If an external agency provided the training can you provide an estimate of the cost per person of this training?
    3. If held can you provide the business case presented to the Senior Management Team for the expenditure on training.

NHSCFA response

In response to your request:

  1. The number of Freedom of Information requests received since 7th November 2018 is:
November 2018 1
December 2018 1
January 4
February 1
March 2
April 4
May 2

No responses exceeded the 20 working day limit.

  1. NHS Counter Fraud Authority employs 165 staff
  2. I am unable to provide this information as the number of staff involved in generating the answer to a Freedom of Information request is not recorded information.
    1. 1 staff member has answering FOI requests as their primary responsibility.
  3. Freedom of Information responses are approved by staff at a senior level who are responsible for the management of the data requested.
Business Unit Responsible Person
Business Support Services Information Systems and Analytics Manager
Organisation Development Organisation Development Manager
Finance & Corporate Governance Corporate Governance Manager
Intelligence and Fraud Prevention Head of Intelligence and Fraud Prevention
Operations Head of Operations

    1. The person responsible for Freedom of Information is trained by an external agency https://www.pdptraining.com/
    2. The cost of the training was £1745.
    3. Priority for learning activities is identified through employees’ personal development plans. The priority for training is linked to specific criteria, which are linked to the business plan of the organisation and the person specification for the role.