I am writing regarding your request for information, which I received on 28 April 2023. In that request, you asked us for the following:

Our first question is can you please clarify what range the data provided is from? I assume it is up to retirement age or those that were currently in work at the time.

My second question is, can you please provide us with information on those members of the NHS pension scheme that passed away after they had retired from work from a recorded case of mesothelioma?

You subsequently clarified the second question with:

I am seeking the number of those already retired and receiving the NHS pension who subsequently die of mesothelioma. So to answer your requests for clarification : i) for the date range, see below; ii) I am seeking the data from all NHS retirees, not just those who retired due to ill health with mesothelioma.

You say in your reply that you may not easily have the data we seek because under the "Tell us once" scheme you do not request cause of death. You say also, however, that you might have a death certificate but that the process of interrogating these might be onerous depending on the date range I ask for.

With that in mind, may I suggest the date range 2017-2022. However, if this is too onerous, I would be interested in any date range you could provide. Even if it's only one or two years, the information would be very useful as I can set it against ONS death data to try and fill out the picture of how many NHS workers have had mesothelioma.

Response

Question one

The information received from our medical advisers “Mesothelioma retirements” is based on the date on which the decision was made by the doctor responsible. However, these members would all be below their standard normal retirement age and this could include members with deferred benefits.

The information provided in the table with FOI-01052 would be based on the date the case was processed. Death in service would only include members who were in active employment at the time of their death.

Ill health retirement - these members would all be below their standard normal retirement age at the date the decision was made.

Question two

I can confirm that the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) holds information meeting the description specified in your request. In order to potentially answer this, we would have to manually interrogate deceased Pensioner records and even if we do so, there may not be a death certificate or cause of death recorded on the respective file being interrogated.

Additionally, should cause of death from mesothelioma be identified on any of the files interrogated, we would not be able to disclose low numbers. For information, the number of records which would need to be interrogated are shown below separated into yearly volumes for ease of reference:

2017: 11,671
2018: 17,057
2019: 17,560
2020: 20,298
2021: 18,611
2022: 19,128
2023: 6,786

We estimate that it would take up to 20 minutes to interrogate each case. For example, for 2023, the 6,786 cases would take roughly (6786 cases x 20 minutes per case) / 60 = 2,262 hours.

Therefore, I estimate that the cost of complying with your request would exceed the non-central Government limit of £450. The limit has been specified in The Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004 and represents the estimated cost of one person spending 18 hours in determining whether the NHSBSA holds the information, and locating, retrieving and extracting the information. Under Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act, the NHSBSA is not obliged to comply with your request and I will not be processing your request further as it currently stands.