Administration and other SHA Costs

Request

Administration
 a. How much did your SHA spend on the following items in each year between 2005 and 2010? Please give the criteria you are using to define each item - i.e. stationery (all office stationery incl toner, but not PCs and printers).
  
(1)  Stationery
(2)  Potted plants
(3)  Furniture
(4)  Office rent/refurbishment
(5)  Legal costs
(6) Consultancy
 
 Marketing and communication
 a. How much did your organisation spend on publicity and marketing materials in each year between 2005 and 2010?

Our Response

I refer to our earlier FOI response to you dated 11 March 2011 and your subsequent request for an internal review of 19 April 2011.  I can confirm that I have now had a chance to review the previous response and to give consideration to your comments relating to further information that we might hold.

I have been liaising with our Finance Team in terms of the provision of a more detailed breakdown of NHS East Midlands’ spend.

You requested further information in respect of the following:

Administration

 a. How much did your SHA spend on the following items in each year between 2005 and 2010? Please give the criteria you are using to define each item - i.e. stationery (all office stationery incl toner, but not PCs and printers).

• Stationery
• Potted plants
• Furniture
• Office rent/refurbishment
• Legal costs

We have been able to provide a further breakdown of the information requested which can be found in the table below.   

Hospitality/away days

a. How much money has been spent on hospitality for conferences and meetings (internal and external) in each year between 2005 and 2010?

b. How much money has spent on internal team-building exercises/'away days' in each year between 2005 and 2010?

c. Please list the detail of the 5 most expensive team-building exercises/'away days' that have taken place between 2005 and 2010?

We feel that our previous response to you on this section of your request still stands.  Having further considered your request for the information around hospitality/away days the nature of this section of your request remains very wide and we are unable to extract these details from our financial systems without a significant amount of work.  This would involve us locating and reviewing every invoice posted to conferences and meetings etc.  We estimate that complying with this section of your overall request would exceed the appropriate costs limit as laid out in section 12 of the FOIA. This limit is currently set at £450. We have estimated that to locate the information, retrieve and extract it, would take in excess of 18 hours. At the hourly rate of £25 per person per hour as set by regulation 4 of the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004, this would exceed the costs limit.  Therefore, we are unable to disclose information to you in this instance as this would place too high a burden on the resources of NHS East Midlands.

In accordance with our duty under section 16 FOIA to provide advice and assistance, we would like to make you aware that you may resubmit a narrowed down request for information which can be handled within the 18 hours fees limit. Please note however that whilst we would not look to discourage you from narrowing your request, it is possible that further exemptions may be applicable which would potentially prevent disclosure.

However, Section 16 of the FOIA places a duty on us to provide applicants with as much help and assistance as possible.  I am therefore able to advise you that during 2010/2011 we spent £17,000 on an SHA all staff development event which brought together staff from its four sites to help them work more effectively and efficiently to meet the organisation’s vision for the region.  Gathering staff together to share ideas and prioritise actions is essential to providing the highest quality care for people in the East Midlands

I hope that this information is of use.  If you are dissatisfied with the outcome of this review 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

Yours sincerely

Moosa Patel (Mr)

Director of Corporate Affairs

NHS East Midlands