Request
I am writing to request information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. I would like to request the following information:
1. The number of penalty notices issued in the past six years to new benefit claimants compared to claimants who have been receiving benefits for over 12 months.
2. Evidence of when and what information relating to your "Check Before You Tick" campaign was provided to MyDentist Westbrook.
3. Details of other efforts made since September 2019 to inform and educate the public about eligibility for NHS dental treatment and the "Check Before You Tick" campaign.
4. Evidence of whether the number of penalty notices issued has increased or decreased since the implementation of the "Check Before You Tick" campaign.
Caveats
Information:
Fewer than 5
Please be aware that I have decided not to release the full details where the total number of individuals falls below five. This is because the individuals could be identified, when combined with other information that may be in the public domain or reasonably available. This information falls under the exemption in section 40 subsections 2 and 3 (a) of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). This is because it would breach the first data protection principle as:
a - it is not fair to disclose individual’s personal details to the world and is likely to cause damage or distress.
b - these details are not of sufficient interest to the public to warrant an intrusion into the privacy of the individual.
Please click the below web link to see the exemption in full.
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/36/section/40
Information:
Breach of confidentiality
Please note that the identification of individuals is also a breach of the common law duty of confidence. An individual who has been identified could make a claim against the NHSBSA for the disclosure of the confidential information.
The information requested is therefore being withheld as it falls under the exemption in section 41(1) ‘Information provided in confidence’ of the Freedom of Information Act.
Please click the below web link to see the exemption in full.
www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/36/section/41
Please note, due to low numbers and low increases of numbers following disclosure of FOI-01448, (https://opendata.nhsbsa.net/dataset/foi-01448) we are unable to provide several of the figures requested. These have been detailed below. This is likely to happen because of the frequency of requests for the same information – once a month or more. We would advise that we would be less likely to need to apply exemptions if requests were submitted every three or six months.
Dataset Details
Service Overview
Information about our NHSBSA Prescriptions Data service can be found here - Prescription Data | NHSBSA
Data Source
Data Collection
Sourced from NHSBSA Common Drug Database (CDR).
Time Periods
Annual upload, capturing a final year-end view of the BNF Information - Current Year dataset.
Historical data is available from 2014 onwards.
Geography
Response
Question 1
Question
The number of penalty notices issued in the past six years to new benefit claimants compared to claimants who have been receiving benefits for over 12 months.
Response
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 NHS Business Services Authority.
NHSBSA does not hold information on benefits people receive. We check what exemption has been claimed on the dental form and then check with DWP who confirm whether the patient has a valid exemption. If not confirmed, then the enquiry letter is issued.
Question 2
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 NHSBSA.
Having reviewed your request, I believe that it is possible that NHS England may hold some or all of the information you require. They can be contacted at:
NHS England
PO Box 16738
Redditch
B97 9PT
Tel:
0300 311 22 33
Email: england.contactus@nhs.net
Web: http://www.england.nhs.uk/contact-us/foi/
Question 3
NHSBSA issues regular communications out to the public via NHSBSA websites, social media, and YouTube videos, we also supply all Dental Practice with updated toolkits and keep them up to date on any changes and updates to share and use in their dental practice.
Question 4
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.
NHSBSA hold monthly 'PCN issued' data but this will not answer the question asked. We do not send a set number of PCNs each month or year, volumes issued are based on several factors such as the number of prescriptions tokens that have been submitted and the ability of our contact centre to handle various volumes of penalty notice contacts. If data showed a change in volumes (up or down) after a campaign started, there is no way to attribute this to a particular campaign.
Enquiries
Who can I contact if I have queries relating to the data?
If you have any queries regarding the data provided, or if you plan on publishing, the data please contact foidata@nhsbsa.nhs.uk ensuring you quote the above reference. This is important to ensure that the figures are not misunderstood or misrepresented.
Citation or Re-publishing this data
Important information regarding 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.
Citation
NHS Business Services Authority. "[FOI NUMBER]" NHS Business Services Authority Open Data. Accessed **[Date Accessed]**. URL:[URL of FOI]
