FOI2025/26/422

I am conducting a national benchmarking exercise on NHS community dietetic services in England and would be grateful if you could provide the following information. Please use figures from the most recent completed financial year for which data are held — 2024/25 if available, otherwise 2023/24.

 

1. What was the total annual spend or budget for your community dietetic service in the reporting year? Please state whether this is a budgeted or actual figure, and confirm which financial year it relates to.

 

2. How many whole-time equivalent (WTE) dietetic posts were funded within the community dietetic service in that year?

 

3. How many of those funded posts were filled? Please provide either the filled WTE as at 31 March of the reporting year, or the average filled WTE across the year — whichever is more readily available.

 

4. How many completed patient contacts did the community dietetic service deliver during the reporting year? Please exclude did-not-attends (DNAs) and cancellations.

 

 

5. Of those completed contacts, how many were new patient contacts and how many were follow-up contacts?

 

6. Do the figures provided in questions 2–5 relate to community dietetic services only, or do they also include acute, inpatient, or outpatient dietetic activity? Please confirm.

 

 

7. What was the most recent Friends and Family Test (FFT) percentage recommended score for the community dietetic service, if this is recorded and held? If FFT data are not available for this service, please state this.

 

Our Response below:

 

Section 43 – Commercial Interest

 

Section 43(2) exempts information whose disclosure would, or would be likely to, prejudice the commercial interests of any person (an individual, a company, the public authority itself or any other legal entity). Disclosure of the requested information could prejudice pending or future negotiations the CLCH may be subject to.

 

This is a qualified exemption under the FOIA, which means that consideration must also be given to whether in all the circumstances of the case the public interest favouring disclosure is greater than the public interest in maintaining the exemption. The public interest means what is in the best interests of the public not what is of interest to the public.

 

Factors in favour of discloser:  

 

• Disclosing information relating to [Q1 – Q7] would promote accountability and transparency by showing how CLCH receive and spend public money. 

 

Factors in favour of non-disclosure: 

 

• Disclosing the information related to [Q1 – Q7 ] would undermine our competitive position in the marketplace. 
• Disclosing the information related to [Q1 – Q7 ] would compromise the commercial activities of CLCH, as it would compromise its ability to negotiate competitive future deals.
• Disclosure of the information related to [Q1 – Q7], is likely to lead to reputational and financial damage which would affect future investments and have a knock-on effect to the money raised for the health economy.

 

Having considered the above, we maintain that the factors in favour of upholding the exemption outweigh the factors in favour of disclosure. Therefore, the balance of the public interest test is greater in maintaining the exemption available under section 43(2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.