Hlth141 Appeals against sectioning under the Mental Health Act

16 April 2012

Dear ,

Request for Information – reference ATISN 5929

Thank you for your letter of 15 March in which you asked for the following under the Freedom of Information Act:

• How many people have appealed against the decision to section them under the Mental Health Act    

• How many of these continued with their appeal through to completion of the process

• How many withdrew from the process

• How many of those who applied were successful

• For this information to be broken down on an annul basis since 2000 and by geographic location

In my letter of 21 March I explained to you that the Welsh Government held some of the information which fell within the description specified in your request.  However, as I clarified, we estimated that it would cost more than the appropriate limit established in the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004 to consider your request.

The appropriate limit specified for central government is £600 which represents the estimated cost of it taking over 24 hours of working time. The Mental Health Review Tribunal receives on average 2,000 applications for Tribunal hearings each year (though not all will progress to final hearing, some will be withdrawn for a variety of reasons).  IT systems are not sufficiently robust to allow interrogation of data meaning that a manual check of files will be needed to confirm the information requested. This will include determining whether we hold the information, locating, retrieving and extracting it.  A further consideration is that most files are held centrally at the Welsh Government’s file repository and in relation to historic records we will need to ascertain numbers of files, when they were created and whether they are still active.  

At a very conservative estimate, once all files have been located (which in itself is a labour intensive task), we estimate 5 minutes to review the file, record the information for inclusion in the FOI and mark the file for return to storage.  For 2,000 files we estimate this work at 166 hours. This is based on 2,000 files multiplied by 5 minutes = 10,000 minutes divided by 60 minutes = 166 hours. Consequently we have decided not to process your request as it would currently exceed the appropriate limit.

In my letter of 21 March I provided you with the opportunity to refine your request so it did not exceed the appropriate limit but I did not receive a response. Any reformulated request the Welsh Government receives from you will be treated as a new request.

If you believe that I have not followed the relevant laws, or you are unhappy with this response, you may request an internal review by writing to:

Joanna Jordan
Director
Department for Health, Social Services and Children
Cathays Park
Cardiff
CF10 3NQ

When dealing with any concerns, we will follow the principles set out in the Welsh Government’s Code of Practice on Complaints which is available on the Internet at www.wales.gov.uk or by post.

You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner. Normally, however, you should provide us with an opportunity to undertake an internal review before you complain to the Information Commissioner.  The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:

Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Tel: 01625 545 745
Fax: 01625 524 510
Email: casework@ico.gsi.gov.uk

Also, if you think that there has been maladministration in dealing with your request then you may make a complaint to the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales who can be contacted at:
Public Services Ombudsman for Wales
Ffordd yr Hen Gae
Pencoed
Bridgend
CF35 5LJ

Yours sincerely,

Department for Health, Social Services and Children
Welsh Government