The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) now has to decide if the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) were correct in handling a new Freedom of information request about the 2022 outbreak of E.coli O157 from lettuce and salad leaves produced in the UK

On 1st July 2024 we submitted a new Freedom of Information request into the outbreak of E.coli O157 that occurred between August and October 2022 in which there were 259 confirmed cases.

On Tuesday 6th August 2024 we submitted a new Freedom of Information Request to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) as we did not receive a reply from the UKHSA, within the specified time limit of 20 working days stated in the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Prior to submitting the new Freedom of Information request we sent an e-mail to the UKHSA on 31/07/2004 asking why we had received no reply. 

We received no response from the UKHSA until after the complaint to the ICO.

When we did receive correspondence from the UKHSA on the 08/08/2024 this was not about the new FOI request of 01/07/2024 or the e-mail of 31/07/2024 but about an e-mail we had sent them on17/06/2024 about when this outbreak report was going to be published by the UKHSA. 

We responded to this e-mail on 06/08/2024 to inform the UKHSA we have received no response to the FOI request of 01/07/2024 or the e-mail of 31/07/2024.

On the 09/08//2024 the UKHSA responded “You request of 1 July 2024 to the Information Rights team has been forwarded to UKHSA's Enquiries team (cced) who are co-ordinating the response. Please accept our apologies for not informing you of this sooner”.

Whilst the UKHSA response of 09/08/2024 is not a clear admission by them, their wording used suggest they are in breach of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 in relation to their response time to the Freedom of Information Request.

If the ICO accept the complaint and if we are given a case officer, we will be asking them to treat the UKHSA’s continuing failure to provide a response to the request as a refusal to provide the information, and also request that the ICO investigate failure to respond within the necessary time period.   

Considering this outbreak started 2 years ago this month and despite several attempts to obtain the outbreak report, those who suffered during this outbreak still have not been given this information and facts that surrounded their illness, despite many of them giving help/assistance at the time of this outbreak into the investigation to the UKHSA & the Food Standards Agency.     

The recent outbreak in May this year of E.coli O145 or STEC O145 (Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli), so far associated with 288 confirmed cases, including one death, also seemingly from salad leaves in sandwiches and wraps distributed nationally and sold by mainly large retailers, we believe has a strong public interest, even if only to help ensure the food they purchase is safe to eat and not injurious to health.