The Freedom of Information Act (FOI) 2000 came into force on 1 January 2005. The Act promotes openness and accountability in the public sector and provides the public with a general right of access to information held by public authorities. The Act does not apply to personal information.
If the authority holds the information and it is not legally exempt from disclosure the authority has a duty to supply the information requested within 20 working days.
While most requests for information are dealt with without making a charge, any request for information which would take more than 18 hours (two and a half working days) to produce can be charged for, or can be refused.
The Environmental Information Regulations are an alternative way of requesting information from public authorities when the information being requested relates to the environment. These regulations will be applied instead of the Freedom of Information Act if we consider this to be the case.
All NHS organisations must have a guide to information to inform people about types of information held and how it can be accessed. This is a requirement under Section 19 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. This is called a publication scheme and can be found at the bottom of this page.
Requests for Information
You should provide us with your full name and contact address (either an email or postal address), a clear description of the information you want and the format you want to receive the information, such as by email or postal response.
Your request for information must be made in writing either by e-mail to foi
Freedom Of Information, Information Governance Team (Digital Services), Northumbria Healthcare Manufacturing and Innovation Hub, Avenue Road, Seaton Delaval, Whitley Bay, NE25 0QJ
Any queries can be directed to 0191 6073609.
Charges
Material which is published and accessed on a website will be provided free of charge.
Charges may be made for information subject to a charging regime specified by Parliament.
Charges may be made for actual disbursements incurred such as:
- photocopying
- postage and packaging
- the costs directly incurred as a result of viewing information
Complaints
If you are not happy with the response you receive, you must first contact the Information Governance Manager by email on foi
If you remain unhappy you can complain to the Information Commissioner who will decide whether the request has been handled properly.
Re-use of Information
There is no charge for re-use of routinely published information, but in line with the re-use of public sector information regulations (2005), we ask that if you do re-use any information you quote the document title and acknowledge that it was published by this organisation and remains our copyright.
Data Protection Impact Assessments (DPIA)
As part of our ongoing transparency, we also make available the Data Protection Impact Assessments (DPIAs) that we have carried out. Please refer to the below assessments that have been carried out, which are available upon request.
Publication Scheme
All policies and procedures are available on request.