Thank you for your request for information about the following: 

Request 

1. Please can you supply copies of all correspondence to all DOHSC/NHS departments regarding the removal of Co-proxamol from Part VIII A of the Drug Tariff during July 2015.

2. All correspondence to all DOHSC/NHS departments regarding the all the pros and cons following its removal.

3. All correspondence to DOHSC/NHS departments regarding your decision to reinstate Co-proxamol to part VIII D Drug Tariff during March 2022.

4. All correspondence to all DOHSC/NHS departments regarding all the pros and cons for its reinstatement. 

The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) received your request on 2 June 2024.  

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

Our response

I can confirm that the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) holds the information you have requested and a copy of the information and notes explaining it is attached. 

Section 40(2) - Personal information 

Redactions have been applied where information is exempt under section 40(2) of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) which is about personal information.

Section 40(2) is an absolute, prejudice-based exemption and therefore is exempt if disclosure would contravene any of the data protection principles. In order for disclosure to comply with the lawfulness, fairness, and transparency principle (the first data protection principle), we either need the consent of the data subject(s) or there must be a legitimate interest in disclosure. In addition, the disclosure must be necessary to meet the legitimate interest and finally, the disclosure must not cause unwarranted harm. 

As we do not have the consent of the data subjects, the NHSBSA is therefore required to conduct a balancing exercise between legitimate interest of the applicant in disclosure against the rights and freedoms of the data subject(s).

The NHSBSA acknowledges that you have a legitimate interest in disclosure of the information in order to provide the full picture of the requested information held by the NHSBSA.

However, the NHSBSA considers that release of the information would breach the first data protection principle as:

a) It is not fair to disclose these people’s personal details to the world and is likely to cause damage or distress to individuals

b) These details are not of sufficient interest to the public to warrant an intrusion into the privacy of those individuals.

We have therefore concluded that disclosure of the requested information would cause unwarranted harm and section 40(2) is engaged. Please see the following link to view the section 40 exemption in full - https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/36/section/40  

Publishing this response 

Please note that this information will be published on our Freedom of Information (FOI) disclosure log at: 

https://opendata.nhsbsa.net/dataset/foi-01981

Your personal details will be removed from the published response. 

Data Queries 

If you have any queries regarding the data provided, or if you plan on publishing, the data please contact foirequests@nhsbsa.nhs.uk ensuring you quote the above reference. This is important to ensure that the figures are not misunderstood or misrepresented. 

Reusing the data and copyright 

If you plan on producing a press or broadcast story based upon the data, please contact: communicationsteam@nhsbsa.nhs.uk. This is important to ensure that the figures are not misunderstood or misrepresented. 

The information supplied to you continues to be protected by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and is subject to NHSBSA copyright. This information is licenced under the terms of the Open Government Licence detailed at: 

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/  

Should you wish to re-use the information you must include the following statement: “NHSBSA Copyright 2024” Failure to do so is a breach of the terms of the licence. 

Information you receive which is not subject to NHSBSA Copyright continues to be protected by the copyright of the person, or organisation, from which the information originated. Please obtain their permission before reproducing any third party (non NHSBSA Copyright) information.