Request

By way of FOIA I wish to request the following:

1. The attributed cost to contacting myself in the manner you have
2. The additional attributable cost now associated with my interactions with the NHSBA to date
3. The number of Type 1 diabetics who have had to interact with the NHSBA to date, broken down by year, since the introduction of the certificate
4. The total staff cost of the NHSBA annually, including pension contributions
5. In your internal documents you will allocate an estimated cost to a patient having to interact with a doctor/GP/other surgery staff member to fill in the form you mention; what is this average cost

On 9 July 2024 you clarified your request as follows:

“Please could you confirm if you are requesting information on the total staff cost for the entirety of the NHS Business Services Authority or the Health Exemption Checking Service (HES), or a specific service within HES, such as the Medical and Maternity Exemption Certificates team.”

Initially I had wanted the former, on reflection is makes sense to have the latter (or both).

Response

I can confirm that the NHSBSA holds some of the information you have requested.

Please read the below notes to ensure correct understanding of the data.

Questions 1-3

1. The attributed cost to contacting myself in the manner you have

2. The additional attributable cost now associated with my interactions with the NHSBA to date

3. The number of Type 1 diabetics who have had to interact with the NHSBA to date, broken down by year, since the introduction of the certificate

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 NHSBSA. The NHSBSA do not breakdown costs to individual calls, letters and emails, or interactions with our digital services. Therefore, we are unable to provide this information.

Question 4: The total staff cost of the NHSBA annually, including pension contributions

NHSBSA total staff costs 2023-24 £145,618,192

Health Exemption Services staff costs 2023-24 £463,466

The costs of running the medical exemption certificate service is not captured separately but the following figures are based on the average whole time equivalent (WTE) of supporting the medical exemption certificate service on an annual basis, which is estimated at 8.88.

Medical exemption certificate services staff costs 2023-24 £292,304

Question 5: In your internal documents you will allocate an estimated cost to a patient having to interact with a doctor/GP/other surgery staff member to fill in the form you mention; what is this average cost

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 NHSBSA.

Advice and assistance

Having reviewed your request, I believe that it is possible that NHS England or the Department for Health and Social Care may hold some or all of the information you require for question five. They can be contacted at:

NHS England

PO Box 16738

Redditch

B97 9PT

Telephone 0300 311 22 33

Email: england.contactus@nhs.net

Web http://www.england.nhs.uk/contact-us/foi/

Department of Health and Social Care

Ministerial Correspondence and Public Enquiries Unit

Department of Health and Social Care

39 Victoria Street

London

SW1H 0EU

Contact form https://contactus.dhsc.gov.uk/

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.