AndreaBozzo/ceres-open-data-index huggingface dataset:
FOI-01155

I am writing regarding your request for information, which I received on 4 May 2023.  In that request, you asked us for the following: 

My understanding is that to receive a pension under the NHS Pension scheme, civil servants must have two years of qualifying service – i.e. have worked for the NHS at least two years.

If they have not, they are offered the opportunity to transfer their pension to another pension scheme or receive employer contributions back as a lump sum, subject to taxation (thus receiving less money).

1) In each of the past five tax years (or an alternative suitable time frame), can you tell me the number of staff that left the scheme without having reached the minimum qualifying criteria. If possible, can this be broken down by job type (i.e. doctor, nurse, other staff).

2) In each year, how many opted for the transfer option, and how many took the employer contributions back as cash? If there are other options, how many opted for these?

3) How do you contact scheme members to let them know of their options, and what is the policy when a scheme member does not respond?

4) In each year, how many scheme members did not respond when given these options, and how much money was sitting in their pension pots?

5) What happens to the money in these cases?

You subsequently clarified that you meant to refer to NHS Pension Scheme members instead of Civil Service Scheme members.

##Response
###Question 3
Information on members’ options is given on the NHSBSA’s website and through their respective Employers who should supply members who are leaving their employ with a copy of the “Leaving the Scheme and transferring Out” Guide.

###Question 5
Any unclaimed benefits would remain in the Scheme.

###Questions 1, 2, and 4
I can confirm that the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) holds information meeting the description specified in your request. However, to provide an answer we would have to manually interrogate around 1 million Pension files. Examining the documentation is also likely to involve a proactive administrative action/manual calculation on each of the records.  It is estimated that this could take between 30 to 40 minutes per case. Additionally, proactive calculation/action does not take place under FOIA.

The interrogation would take (~35 minutes per case x 1,000,000 cases) / 60 = ~583,333 hours to complete.

Therefore, I 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 and extracting the information.  Under Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act, the NHSBSA is not obliged to comply with your request and I will not be processing your request further as it currently stands.

Tags: NHS Pension Scheme
Organization: Freedom of Information Disclosure Log
FOI-01624

#Request#

Please can you provide the following information:  
•	The different types of contraceptive patch the NHS prescribes and their individual cost upon purchase.  
•	The cost of prescription, including appointment.  



#Response#
Under Section 21 of the Act, we are not required to provide information in response to a request if it is already reasonably accessible to you. 
 
Data on the prices used for reimbursement of English dispensing in the community can be found in the Drug Tariff. 
https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/pharmacies-gp-practices-and-appliance-contractors/drug-tariff 
 
To use the document, click on the link above and scroll to the link on the page titled “View the January 2024 Drug Tariff online”. Once in the file, use the search function on the left-hand side to search for ‘contraceptive’. Click on the link(s) that appear, and you will be able to see a breakdown of the products available and the cost in pence to the NHS. 
 
Data on prescribing volumes and costs for English dispensing in the community can be found in the published Prescription Cost Analysis statistics (PCA), this data is classified against what is considered to be the 'main' therapeutic use for the pharmaceutical 'presentation' expressed using the (pseudo) British National Formulary (BNF) hierarchy. The tables include a breakdown with each pharmaceutical presentation reported separately. 
https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/statistical-collections/prescription-cost-analysis-england 
 
To use the document, click on the link above and scroll to the “Resource List”. From here you can choose to view the data on a national scale or narrowed down to local ICB level.  Once in the file, we recommend downloading the file in order to filter the columns for ease of access. We recommend using the National Summary Tables and viewing Table 6: BNF presentation level data. Within this file you can filter by name in column C or the measurement in column D. We recommend that you access this data knowing the names of the medication, devices or patches you require.
 
Please be aware of the PCA methodology which may be relevant depending on interpretation. 
https://nhsbsa-opendata.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/pca/pca_background_info_methodology_v001.html 
 
The basis of the cost information included in the PCA data is described in the 'metadata' section included with the release and relates to the amount included in the reimbursement. 
  
NHSBSA prescription data only covers prescription items that have been submitted for reimbursement by community NHS dispensing contractors - this does not include any direct purchases made by other parts of the NHS (for example hospitals or other facilities that are operated by NHS Trusts). 
 
The NHS Business Services Authority does not hold data - including cost information - about appointments. 


Tags: NHS Prescriptions
Organization: Freedom of Information Disclosure Log
FOI-01444

Thank you for your request for information about the following:  

All adverts published for ALL NHS TRUSTS (UK Wide) between August 2022 and August 2023 where the job title includes the phrase photograph 

Your request was received on 21st September and I am dealing with it under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.  

##Response  

A copy of the information is attached. Please read the below notes to ensure correct understanding of the data.  

Criteria used: 
- Organisation Type: NHS Trust 
- Job Title Includes ‘Photograph’ (Note: this includes ‘Photographer/Photography’)
- Dates: 01/08/2022 to 31/08/2023  

Please note that this request and our response is published on our Freedom of Information disclosure log at:  

https://opendata.nhsbsa.net/dataset/foi-01444  

Data Queries  

If you have any queries regarding the data provided, or if you plan on publishing the data please contact dataandinsightsupport@nhsbsa.nhs.uk / foidata@nhsbsa.nhs.uk / foirequests@nhsbsa.nhs.uk ensuring you quote the above reference. This is important to ensure that the figures are not misunderstood or misrepresented.  

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 2023” This information is licenced under the terms of the Open Government Licence:  

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/   

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. 

Tags: NHS Jobs
Organization: Freedom of Information Disclosure Log
FOI-01585

#Request

_I would be most grateful if you would provide me, under the Freedom of Information Act, the information requested below._

_The details we require are:_

_1) Do you use a social listening platform?_

_2) If so, what tools do you use?_

_3) How much do you spend annually on a social listening tool?_

_4) Which month & year does your contract with your supplier end?_

_5)Do you use a media monitoring platform?_

_6) If so, what tools do you use?_

_7) How much do you spend annually on a media monitoring tool?_

_8) Which month & year does your contract with your supplier end?_

_9) Who is the budget holder for these contracts?_

##Response

__Question 1__ - Yes

__Question 2__ - Orlo

__Question 3__ - We use a customer service tool called Orlo. It has a wide range of social media functions and just one of these is social listening. The total value of this tool costs £41,586 ex. VAT. We cannot break down the price to show the cost of social listening alone and therefore this information is not held by NHSBSA

__Question 4__ - November 2024

__Question 5__ - Yes

__Question 6__ - Onclusive

__Question 7__ - £4200 exc VAT for media monitoring

__Question 8__ - July 2024

__Question 9__ - The Head of Communications and Marketing 

__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.

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” This information is licenced under the terms of the Open Government Licence:

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/ 

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.

Tags: social listening
Organization: Freedom of Information Disclosure Log
FOI-01642

#Request

_Under the Freedom of Information Act I write to ask if you can provide me with the number of Subject Access Requests received by the Trust over the most recent 12 month period (12 month period or financial or calendar year)._

##Response

In 2023 (January-December) there were 828 Subject Access Requests (SARs) received by the NHS BSA.

This figure only includes valid SARs. It does not include requests which were dealt with as Business As Usual (BAU), Right To Be Forgotten (RTBF), duplicate requests, SARs which were handled as a Freedom Of Information (FOI) request, or any requests which were invalid.

__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.

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” This information is licenced under the terms of the Open Government Licence:

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/ 

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.


Tags: Subject access requests
Organization: Freedom of Information Disclosure Log
FOI-01634

#Request#
In relation to 'substitution awards' made by the NHSBSA please can you advise  
 
1. how many claims for substitution awards are outstanding at 01/01/24? 
2. what is the average processing time for these awards - from receipt to actual payment ? 
3. if average time can't be calculated please advise the longest and shortest processing times in the last 12 months? 
4. advise why the department has no targets and will give no indication of expected processing times when requested? 

#Response#
Question 1 
 
As of 24 January 2024, there are 6,317 substitute award cases outstanding. 
 
Question 2 
 
The average processing time can’t be calculated for these awards as they are outstanding. The awards would need to have been completed be able to calculate the average processing time. 
 
If you wish to request the average processing time for claims which have been fully processed, please submit a fresh request. 
 
Question 3 
 
Of the 21,357 substitute awards completed between 1 January 2023 and 23 January 2024, the longest processing time was 2,772 calendar days and the shortest processing time was 0 days. Processing time has been calculated as the number of calendar days between the date a substitute award was logged on our system to the date it was marked as completed on our system. 
 
Question 4 
 
We have a maximum of 12 months to revise benefits (Substitute Awards) to avoid tax implications but aim to process as soon as possible depending on resource availability. 
 
External factors outside the control of NHS Pensions can also contribute to processing times. In the interests of completeness, for between 1 January 2023 and 23 January 2024 the mean processing time for a substitute award was 70 calendar days, with the median processing time being 21 calendar days. 
 
We are proactively working to process substitute awards alongside other priority workloads, including but not limited to, first awards. We will work with our Contact Centre Agents to provide visibility of expected processing times, so they are better able to support our members with queries. 


Organization: Freedom of Information Disclosure Log
FOI-01668

##Request

I am writing in relation to a previous Freedom of Information request which you have kindly responded to.  I would like to make a new request under the Freedom of Information Act, for the following data:

The reference number for the previous request is 01550 and we would like a re-run of this for the latest data, i.e. for the month of October 2023.

##Response

The data is too large to send via email. Please visit the open data portal on the below link to receive a copy of this information.
 
https://opendata.nhsbsa.net/dataset/foi-01668

NHS Prescription Services process prescriptions for Pharmacy Contractors, Appliance Contractors, Dispensing Doctors and Personal Administration with information then used to make payments to pharmacists and appliance contractors in England for prescriptions dispensed in primary care settings (other arrangements are in place for making payments to Dispensing Doctors and Personal Administration). This involves processing over 1 billion prescription items and payments totalling over £9 billion each year. The information gathered from this process is then used to provide information on costs and trends in prescribing in England and Wales to over 25,000 registered NHS and Department of Health and Social Care users.
	
Data Source	

The data source was the NHSBSA Information Services Data Warehouse.

Exclusions

The Data excludes: 
•           Items not dispensed, disallowed and those returned to the contractor for further clarification. 
•           Prescriptions prescribed and dispensed in Prisons, Hospitals and Private prescriptions.
•           Items prescribed but not presented for dispensing or not submitted to NHS Prescription Services by the dispenser.

Please note data for drugs flagged in our database as Schedule 2 and 3 controlled drugs have been excluded from this dataset for information security reasons to prevent the identification of organisations with high levels of controlled drug dispensing.

Time Period	

October 2023 inclusive

Organisation Data	

The data provided is for prescriptions dispensed in England.

BNF Code	

The BNF Code is a 15 digit code in which the first seven digits are allocated according to the categories in the BNF and the last 8 digits represent the medicinal product, form, strength and the link to the generic equivalent product. NHS Prescription Services has created pseudo BNF chapters, which are not published, for items not included in BNF chapters 1 to 15. The majority of such items are dressings and appliances which NHS Prescription Services has classified into four pseudo BNF chapters (20 to 23).

Please note that this request and our response is published on our Freedom of Information disclosure log at:

https://opendata.nhsbsa.net/dataset/foi-01668



Tags: NHS Prescriptions, Pharmacy contractor
Organization: Freedom of Information Disclosure Log
FOI-01630

##Request

Please confirm the following for the Employer Helpline, the Scheme Member Helpline and the Pensions Online Helpdesk for the period 1st October 2023 to 31st December 2023 inclusive on a month by month basis: 
  
1. Total Calls Received 
2. Longest Waiting Time 
3. Shortest Waiting Time 
4. Average Waiting Time 
5. Total Abandoned Calls 
6. Total number of "Complaints" received regarding the above Helpline service(s)’ 
  
Please provide the information in the same format as FOI 01274

##Response


A copy of the information is attached. 

The Pensions Online (POL) Helpdesk is part of the Employer Helpline (option 2 on the call directing)

Question 6

I am writing to advise you that the information you requested is not held by the NHS Business Services Authority.

The way which we record complaints has changed. As such, the way in which we capture, record, and categorise no longer allows us to identify which channel the complaint was received, or which channel the complaint was in reference to. Complaints are now categorised more generally relating to the main subject of the complaint.

Please note that this request and our response is published on our Freedom of Information disclosure log at:

https://opendata.nhsbsa.net/dataset/foi-01630



Tags: Helpline, NHS Pensions
Organization: Freedom of Information Disclosure Log
FOI-01629

##Request

Please confirm the following for the Employer Helpline, the Scheme Member Helpline and the Pensions Online Helpdesk for the period 1st July 2023 to 30th September 2023 inclusive on a month by month basis: 
  
1. Total Calls Received 
2. Longest Waiting Time 
3. Shortest Waiting Time 
4. Average Waiting Time 
5. Total Abandoned Calls 
6. Total number of "Complaints" received regarding the above Helpline service(s)’ 
  
Please provide the information in the same format as FOI 01274


##Response

Questions 1-5

A copy of the information is attached. 

The Pensions Online (POL) Helpdesk is part of the Employer Helpline (option 2 on the call directing)

Question 6

I am writing to advise you that the information you requested is not held by the NHS Business Services Authority.

The way which we record complaints has changed. As such, the way in which we capture, record, and categorise no longer allows us to identify which channel the complaint was received, or which channel the complaint was in reference to. Complaints are now categorised more generally relating to the main subject of the complaint.

Please note that this request and our response is published on our Freedom of Information disclosure log at:

https://opendata.nhsbsa.net/dataset/foi-01629



Tags: Helpline, NHS Pensions
Organization: Freedom of Information Disclosure Log
FOI-018101

##Request


Dear NHSBSA FOI team, Thank you for fulfilling my previous FOI request number 18018.
May I please make the same request but for any newer months for which data is
available, i.e. July and August 2021?

##Response

Data for August 2021
At the time your request was made the information you requested for August 2021 was not
held by the NHS Business Services Authority.
Please submit a new FOI request for this data.

Data for July 2021
A copy of the information, together with the accompanying caveats is attached.
There is a completed file for each month. FOI8592 has 2 files (February 2019 and March 2019)

Source System – ISP (National MIS Files)

NHSBSA Prescription Services process prescriptions for Pharmacy Contractors, Appliance Contractors, Dispensing Doctors and Personal Administration with information then used to make payments to pharmacists and appliance contractors in England for prescriptions dispensed in primary care settings (other arrangements are in place for making payments to Dispensing Doctors and Personal Administration). This involves processing over 1 billion prescription items and payments totalling over £9 billion each year. The information gathered from this process is then used to provide information on costs and trends in prescribing in England and Wales to over 25,000 registered NHS and Department of Health and Social Care users.

This report consists of a management information file detailing monthly Community Pharmacy and Appliance Payments by type of payment and contractor account. Payments include all drug costs, fees, patient charges, locally authorised payments, etc. Other details such as the numbers of items dispensed, patient’s charges collected are also included.

The management information file reflects the contractor's payment and prescription data associated with the sustainability and transformation partnerships (STPs) structure at the relevant payment date.

The data contained within the files can be interpreted correctly by using the ‘MIS Glossary’ available under ‘Management Information Spreadsheet (MIS) Report’ at https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/information-services-portal-isp/isp-report-information .

The data in column METHADONE PAYMT and ADD FEE-2E within the Pharmacy dataset have been removed following Information Governance policy.

Appliance Contractors data within the MIS- Report shows data for the following month. (E.g. MIS-Report for January 19 will show February 19 Appliance Contractor data).  

There is a list of previous requests and which months we have provided called MIS FOI Requests  in IST/Reference – please add new requests and months provided to this. 



Please note that this request and our response is published on our Freedom of Information disclosure log at:

https://opendata.nhsbsa.net/dataset/foi-18101


Tags: NHS Prescriptions, Pharmacy Contractors
Organization: Freedom of Information Disclosure Log