UK Biobank part 3

Readers with a long memory will recall that I blogged about the UK Biobank project back in January (with an update in May), and that at the time I made a Freedom of Information request to try to receive the ethics application form for the study.

By law, public bodies are required to respond to Freedom of Information requests within 20 working days. I finally received the documents I asked for this week. That's a lot more than 20 working days since January. It took several reminders and a formal complaint to the bit of the NHS that held the documents before I received them, but I got there in the end. I have no idea whether the reluctance to send the documents was because they have something to hide or simply good old-fashioned inefficiency.

Anyway, better late than never. I'm also happy to report that the Department of Health have also sent their documents, and did so much more promptly, well within the 20-day limit.

There's a lot to look at. I shall report back here when I have done so.