FOI – 000270 Clinical medical waste shipped to England and Europe (HTML)
Date received – 28 October 2022 | Date responded – 28 November 2022
Request
- The total volume of clinical/medicalwaste shipped to England and Europe from Scotland between 2018 up and until todays date.
- The holding location for the above waste between 2018 up to and including 2022.
- All communication details between the companies below with NSS, NHSS and Martin Bell.
NSS FOI Clarifications:
Which companies you are referring to? wh Malcolm Cliniwaste Mitie em Mitchell
The date range of correspondence between NSS, NHSS and Martin Bell. From July 2018 up to December 2020
Response
I refer to your freedom of information request that we received on 28 October 2022. I can advise you that we have now completed the search of our records and can provide you with the following information:
- The total volume of clinical/medicalwaste shipped to England and Europe from Scotland between 2018 up and until today’s date.
Figure 1.
Clinical Waste Shipped Dates – Clinical/medical waste shipped to England/Wales (Tonnes) – Clinical/medical waste shipped to other European countries (excluding Scotland) (Tonnes)
- Dec 2018 Mar 2019 – 3,904 – 0
- Apr 2019 Mar 2020 – 3,388 – 0
- Apr 2020 Mar 2021 – 3,754 – 0
- Apr 2021 Oct 2022 – 3,616 – 0
The holding location for the above waste between 2018 up to and including 2022.
- Waste Holding Locations as follows: Tradebe – Wrexham, Swindon, Fawley, Redditch and Bellshill
- Cliniwaste – Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Nottinghamshire and Shotts
- Veolia – Ellemere Port, Tyseley
- Viridor – Dunbar
- Rentokil – Coatbridge
- Perfect Hygiene – Forresterhill Waste Transfer Station, NHS Grampian
- Denholm MacNamee – Raigmore Waste Transfer Station, NHS Highland
- All communication details between the companies below with NSS, NHSS and Martin Bell between July 2018 and December 2020 all dates inclusive:
- WH Malcolm (Linwood) Ltd.
- Cliniwaste
- Mitie Waste & Environmental Services Ltd.
- J. Mitchell Haulage Ltd.
Section 13 (2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2022 - Fees for disclosure in certain circumstances - could have been applied to your request however Section (15) of the Freedom of Information Act 2022 - Duty to provide advice and assistance applies. On this basis although the request is very large due to the number of companies involved and the timeframe the information will be released in 2 stages. The first being today with the remaining information being released within a further 20 days from today. Due to the volume of the information requested, the detail will be released in the format of appendices as compressed files in 12 emails relating to each of the companies. In regards to the appendices some of them contain reference to more than one company and on that basis the appendices will only be released in one email relating to one of the companies referenced for example: email includes reference to J Mitchell Haulage and Rentokil it will appear only in the J Mitchell file release it will not appear in the Rentokil file release.
Some of the documentation being released includes personal data of third parties, specifically, names of individuals which have not been released into the public domain on any previous FOIs or literature regarding this topic. Where this is the case, these names and contact details have been redacted in line with exception Section 38 ((1)(b)) of the Freedom of Information Scotland Act – Personal information.
Under Section 17 of the Freedom of Information Scotland Act – Notice that information is not held - an organisation is not required to provide information if it does not hold that information. NHS National Services Scotland (NSS) does not hold information in relation to communications involving individuals no longer employed by NSS in that, we no longer have access to their individual email accounts – Jim Miller, Director of Procurement Commissioning & Facilities; Martin Street, Strategic Sourcing Director; Peter McConnell, Head of Strategic Sourcing & Commercial.
Under Section 36 (1) - Confidentiality - Information in respect of which a claim to confidentiality of communication could be maintained in legal proceeding is exempt information.
Where this information (invoicing and tonnage data from July 2018 – December 2020) has been withheld it relates to an ongoing legal case and on that basis, there is a greater public interest in withholding the information to ensure fairness in the court proceedings.
I trust you will find the information of assistance and if you require any further information please do not hesitate to contact us.
If you are unhappy with any aspect of how we have dealt with your request you can make representations to us asking us to review the handling of your request.
If you require any further information please contact Associate Director Information Security & Governance, within 40 working days of the date of this correspondence.
Contact
Email: nss.foi@nhs.scot
Address
NHS National Services Scotland Headquarters Gyle Square 1 South Gyle Crescent Edinburgh EH12 9EB
If after a review you are still unhappy, you also have the right to apply to the Scottish Information Commissioner, who can be contacted at Kinburn Castle, St Andrews, Fife, KY16 9DS, or via their application form.
National Services Scotland (NSS) is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. You can view all FOI responses within our FOI Publications repository.