Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 8 October 2019 to Question 293626 on NHS: Disclosure of Information whether the FOI (Civil Procurement) Policy and Guidance Version 2.0 applies to commissioners of NHS services.

The document ‘FOI (Civil Procurement) Policy and Guidance Version 2.0’ was published by the Office of Government in November 2008. The document provides policy and guidance on how requests for civil procurement-related information under the Freedom of Information Act (FOI) should be handled. Whilst primarily aimed at central Government Departments, it has application across the wider public sector wherever civil procurement is practised.

The guidance states that this document represents the Government’s view of the application of the FOI to public procurement information but that the guidance is only intended as a starting point and public authorities remain responsible for making their own judgements in individual cases.