Thank you for your request for information about the following:

Request

Thankyou for providing some of the requested data in my last SAR request, however I also seek you to provide/supply the information below which I now request as a Subject Access Request (SAR).

1. Seeks the names, makeup and qualifications of the panel members who sat on his appeal; (note, you cannot redact these names as it is necessary to know who the people are so it can be assessed for bias and knowledge), as this claim is progressing to Judicial Review.

2. When the above members were appointed to be a panel member;

3. How they are appointed and by whom;

4. Whether the panel members were in practice dealing specifically with HIV and the transmission of HIV;

5. Were any of the panel members in surgical practice in or around 1995;

6. Whether they had specific experience of both head trauma and haematology as this information will aid to establish whether the panel members are suitably qualified to assess his appeal in a competent, professional and fair manner;

7. How they get renumerated and by which body;

8. Is the renumeration linked to any internal targets of any kind;

9. Seeks the number of approved HIV applications and appeals made after 2018 by the EIBSS whether by application and/or appeal.

The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) received your request on 28 February 2025.

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

Our response

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

Question 1

Seeks the names, makeup and qualifications of the panel members who sat on his appeal; (note, you cannot redact these names as it is necessary to know who the people are so it can be assessed for bias and knowledge), as this claim is progressing to Judicial Review.

Under Section 21 of the FOIA we are not required to provide information in response to a request if it is already reasonably accessible to you.

The information you requested is available on the NHSBSA website https://opendata.nhsbsa.net/dataset/foi-24399. If you do not have access to the Internet at home you can request a paper copy by contacting me.

Please see the following link to view the section 21 in full - https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/36/section/21

Question 2

When the above members were appointed to be a panel member;

All appeals are heard by a panel, comprised of three medical experts, who have been part of the panel since 1 November 2017 and a legal chairperson, who joined the panel on 15/05/2020.

Question 3

How they are appointed and by whom;

When a recruitment is required, an advert is placed in the British Medical Journal. CVs are requested to be submitted and based on the information provided, the applicants are shortlisted. Shortlisting will be undertaken by an existing panel member and interviews held with the shortlisted applicants. The interview panel consists of an appeals panel member and an EIBSS Service Delivery Manager.

Questions 4, 5 and 6

Under Section 21 of the FOIA we are not required to provide information in response to a request if it is already reasonably accessible to you.

The information you requested is available on the NHSBSA website https://opendata.nhsbsa.net/dataset/foi-02553. If you do not have access to the Internet at home you can request a paper copy by contacting me.

Please see the following link to view the section 21 in full - https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/36/section/21

Question 7

How they get renumerated and by which body

The panel members submit their renumeration claim to the NHSBSA for services rendered.

Question 8

Is the renumeration linked to any internal targets of any kind

Renumeration is based upon the number of hours worked providing services for EIBSS, this is not based on any target.

Question 9

Seeks the number of approved HIV applications and appeals made after 2018 by the EIBSS whether by application and/or appeal

The NHSBSA does hold the requested information; however, we estimate that the cost of compliance with the request would exceed the appropriate limit under section 12 of the FOIA.

We 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, extracting and checking the information.

Please see the following calculations which sets out the estimated cost for compliance with this request:

128 people with HIV have been registered onto the scheme since 2018, these are a mixture of applications directly to EIBSS and people who were previously registered with an Alliance House Organisation (AHO). EIBSS do not keep a note of applications directly to EIBSS or historic AHO beneficiaries joining and to directly answer this question would require a manual review of those records which would take over 18 hours.

Question 10

I therefore request that these notes the chair has made by made available to me.

For this request we will require you to contact the England Infected Blood Support Scheme team at the following email: eibss@nhsbsa.nhs.uk and a request can be made to the chair for the notes.

Publishing this response

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

https://opendata.nhsbsa.net/dataset/foi-02640

Your personal details will be removed from the published response.

Data Queries

Please contact foirequests@nhsbsa.nhs.uk ensuring you quote the above reference if you have any specific questions regarding this response; or, if you feel you may be misunderstanding or misinterpreting the information; or, if you plan on publishing the data.

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 2025” 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.