I am writing to confirm that I have now completed my search for the information which you requested on 10 May 2024.

Request

You asked us:

‘I would like to know how many penalty charge notices have been successful on appeal using exceptional circumstances and what those exceptional circumstances were?’

The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) received your request on 10 May 2024.

We have handled your request under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) 2000.

Our response

I am writing to advise you that following a search of our paper and electronic records, I have established that the information you requested is not held by the NHS Business Services Authority. Although there are exceptional circumstances where it would not be in the patient’s interest to apply a penalty charge, when the patient’s liability is established, it is not possible to accurately identify these cases. Our records do not clearly state that a penalty charge was closed due to “exceptional circumstances”, as that is not a category of closure. Even if colleagues were to manually look at each case, it would not be apparent as this is not clearly defined. If more than one colleague were to conduct a manual search of each record, they would be likely to interpret the records differently and, in all likelihood, would not record the same number of cases.

Exceptional Reasons

An administrative easement may apply to the penalty charge, only where the patient has a compelling reason for having claimed exemption incorrectly.

There is no liability for a penalty charge where a patient can show that they did not act wrongfully, or with any lack of care, in respect of the charge in question.

A person who acted with a lack of care is defined as follows:

The person avoided the original charge by being reckless or careless about their obligation to pay, i.e. they did not take the normal amount of care that could be expected of a person in their circumstances, for instance they did not check that they were getting the correct type of benefit, or that their certificate was still valid.

A person who acted wrongfully is defined as follows:

The wrongful act occurs when the patient or their representative claims help with NHS charges to which they are not entitled by completing and signing the declaration.

Vulnerable Patients

It is policy to recover prescription/dental charges where exemption has been claimed incorrectly and to collect penalty charges and surcharges where appropriate. The NHSBSA will take into account the individual circumstances of patients and will deal sympathetically with patients who are in vulnerable groups.

Advice and assistance

If we were to simplify things, we could simply determine that all cases where a penalty was closed/eased for any reason other than there being a clear valid exemption in place, please let us know by reply and this will be handled as a fresh request.