[ RadSafe ] RE FOI and data supporting epidemiological studies

[Marcel Schouwenburg]

Further to the posting about :-

Decision 021/2005 - Mr Michael Collie and the Common Services Agency for
the Scottish Health Service Request for information relating to
incidences of childhood leukaemia - information withheld on basis of
section 38(1)(b) - failure of Common Services Agency to deal with
request fully in accordance with section 1(1) of the Freedom of
Information (Scotland) Act 2002.

The Sunday Herald reports 2nd October 2005

http://www.sundayherald.com/52028

THE Scottish Information Commissioner, Kevin Dunion, is being taken to
court by the National Health Service in an attempt to keep controversial
cancer statistics secret. This is the first legal challenge to Dunion,
who has been overseeing the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act since it
came into force at the beginning of the year.

The NHS says it has taken the action to protect patient confidentiality.
The case, to be heard at the Court of Session in Edinburgh, is
unprecedented - it is the first time that the Scottish Executive's
ground-breaking FOI legislation will be tested in court.

In January, Chris Ballance, the Green MSP for the South of Scotland,
asked the NHS Common Services Agency (CSA) to provide the annual
incidence of childhood leukaemia in every Census ward in Dumfries and
Galloway from 1990 to 2003.

There have long been suspicions that clusters of the potentially fatal
blood cancer could have been caused by radioactive pollution. Plutonium
from the Sellafield nuclear plant washes up on the Solway coast, and
depleted uranium shells have been tested at the Dundrennan military
range near Kirkcudbright. Scotland's oldest nuclear station, which is
now being decommissioned, is at Chapelcross, near Annan.


Fred Dawson
Health Physics Assistant Director & Team Leader
Directorate of Safety & Claims
6-D-30 MOD Main Building
Whitehall, LONDON SW1A 2HB

phone +44 (0)20 7807 0215
mobile +44 (0)7 973 169 339
email dsc-hpad at mod.uk
http://www.mod.uk/dsc/
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Marcel Schouwenburg - RadSafe moderator & List owner
Head Training Centre Delft
National Centre for Radiation Protection (Dutch abbr. NCSV)

Faculty of Applied Sciences / Reactor Institute Delft
Delft University of Technology
Mekelweg 15
NL - 2629 JB  DELFT
The Netherlands
Phone +31 (0)15 27 86575
Fax     +31 (0)15 27 81717
email   m.schouwenburg at tnw.tudelft.nl