Thank you for your request for information about the following:

Request

‘Also, exercising my rights under the freedom of information I require you to provide information relating to:

How many people have been fined

How many people have complained

How many complaints have been upheld’

[On 15 July 2024 you clarified your request as follows]

‘From 20th September 2019. The reason for this day is that was when a report had been published identifying problems with the NHSBSA services being confusing and hence patients being fined.’

The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) received your request on 9 July 2024, with clarification received on 15 July 2024.

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

Our response

All data relates to Dental Exemption Checking Service fines. Data is from 20 September 2019 to 24 July 2024.

Please note, we have no way of identifying individuals within our data so the below relates to cases. It is possible that individuals have had multiple cases or made multiple complaints within this time period.

The complaints data relates to how many complaints were received during the time period. These complaints will not all relate to the number of fines issued within the requested time period, some may relate to cases issued prior to this date.

Question 1

525,405 fines were issued.

Question 2

7,212 complaints were received.

Question 3

464 of the complaints were upheld.

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.