DoH
Annexe 3
Castle Buildings
Stormont
Belfast BT4 3SQ
Email: FOI@health-ni.gov.uk
Note:
The pressure on staff due to the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) crisis is still at a high level and a considerable number of staff have been redeployed from their normal “day jobs” to work solely on response to the current pandemic.
Unfortunately the staff who may be in the best position to answer your request could be the very staff still engaged in the daily discussions and consultations with the Minister and the Executive in considering the most appropriate course of action to steer us through the current crisis.
The Department acknowledges the immeasurable public interest in the ever developing situation and how that affects us all, but, unfortunately, a request for information may still take us a little longer than normal to answer at this time.
In the meantime and in an effort to be as helpful as possible, can I advise you that the Department is now publishing information supporting the decisions taken by the Executive over the last few difficult months. This information can be accessed on the department's website:
Furthermore a lot of information underpinning decisions taken by the Department and Health Minister, is derived from work undertaken by other organisations such as SAGE, NISRA and PHA and we have included links to each of their sites.
The Department’s own website is updated regularly with general advice on Covid19 as well as the Department’s dashboard with specific Covid19 data which is updated daily.
Additionally Minister provides regular updates to MLA’s during plenary sessions and Minister and Departmental officials regularly attend NI Assembly Committee evidence sessions. Recordings and transcripts of these can be viewed on the NI Assembly website.
Thank you
Information Management Branch