Correspondence with General Medical Council (GMC): FOI release

Information request and response under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002.


Information requested

A copy of any email to and from the sponsorship and inclusion team and which contains the term

"PA" "PHYSICIAN ASSOCIATE" "PHYSICIAN ASSISTANT" "PAs" "AA" "ANAESTHESIA ASSOCIATE" "ANAESTHETIC ASSOCIATE" “ANAESTHETIST ASSOCIATE"
1.Dame Carrie MacEwen.
2.Charlie Massey.
3.Colin Melville.
4.any email with the domain @gmc-uk.org.

Response

I enclose a copy of most of the information you requested.

As per your clarification the timeframe for searches conducted was 1 March 2024 – 23 September 2024 when the FOI request was submitted. As per your agreement I expanded the search terms to include “Medical Associate Professions”, “Medical Associate Professionals” and “MAPs”.

E-Mail exchanges between the GMC and the Sponshorship and Infrastructure Unit between the time of 14 March 2024 – 14 July 2024 that you have requested are available as part of the following FOI release:

https://www.gov.scot/publications/foi-202400422610/

Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website(s) listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

Unless otherwise stated, all redactions to content released as part of this response have been made under section 38(1)(b) (personal information) of FOISA. The reason why that exemption applies is because the material in question constitutes personally identifiable information. In addition, some information has been redacted from email chain 5 on the basis that it is out of scope and this has been marked accordingly. The reason for this exemption is because the information relates to an exchange between the GMC and an organisation other than the Scottish Government.

With regards to email chain 1, the attachments to this e-mail are publicly available via the GMC Website:

GMC reference numbers for PAs and AAs - GMC (gmc-uk.org)
A message from GMC Chair Professor Dame Carrie MacEwen - GMC (gmc-uk.org)

Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website(s) listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.

FOI 202400433122 - Information Released - Annex

Contact

Please quote the FOI reference
Central Correspondence Unit
Email: contactus@gov.scot
Phone: 0300 244 4000

The Scottish Government
St Andrew's House
Regent Road
Edinburgh
EH1 3DG

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