In what we believe to be the largest single release of information since the inception of the Freedom of Information Act 12 years ago, the Health Service Executive (HSE) has released details of expense claims for everyone in the organisation over the past three and a half years. The datasets contain 316,307 rows, totaling €260,450,676.60 (€260.4m) broken down by HSE region, and in some cases by hospital/grade.
It has been difficult to calculate just how many people this relates to, but given that 100,000 people work for the HSE, we suspect the data relates to a great many people working within the organisation. And we should make clear that as far as we are concerned the vast, vast majority of claims are entirely legitimate. What we believe, and as we have always stated, is that this kind of information should be published as a matter of course by all public bodies, in open accessible formats, and on a regular basis.
There are a number of issues, however. Firstly the data varies. Each HSE region has released the data in different ways. Some have released more columns than others, some have helpfully condensed the data into single sheets. Others have released poorly, with the record accidentally cut short within cells.
Some readers have expressed surprise to us at the length of time it takes to get releases, so we will try to describe this more within blog posts. In this case the process took 3 months. The data element of our request went well over the 20 days allowed for reply and as a result we sought an internal review on the basis of deemed refusal. The HSE then met, and decided to release. We wish to praise the HSE in one significant respect. The HSE released the data in spreadsheets (xls as requested), on a memory stick and then sent the data via courier (though post would have been fine). If all bodies acted in this way it would help us all. Bodies who release data as PDFs take note.
We have also been made aware that as is common practice within public bodies, a notification was posted to the HSE internal intranet, informing all staff that expenses data had been released to a Mr Gavin Sheridan, and it would shortly be in the public domain. This has led to a significant number of Google searches over the past couple of weeks from HSE domains.
We are going to release this data in the unclean and raw way in which it was released. It was released several weeks ago to us and myself and Mark have spent a good deal of time cleaning the sheets and analysing them for potential follow-up (hence the quiet period around here of late). We will release those versions soon. We will be seeking the technical assistance of others in further cleaning and combining the data into a searchable database for any member of the public (or of the HSE) to access.
To kick things off, and in no particular order. Here are the expense claims of HSE South for 2007 and 2008:
Contextual documents:
FOI letter
Internal review decision
Expenses context
HSE South: €39,532,886.69, 23,415 rows, 15.18% of the total claimed
HSE South 2007
HSE South 2008
HSE South 2009
HSE South 2010 (to end June)
HSE Northwest: €35,786,735.08, 16,715 rows, 13.74% of the total claimed
HSE Northwest 2007
HSE Northwest 2008
HSE Northwest 2009
HSE Northwest 2010 (to end June)
HSE Midlands: €31,470,046.22, 14,807 rows, 12.08% of the total claimed
HSE Midlands 2007
HSE Midlands 2008
HSE Midlands 2009
HSE Midlands 2010 (to end June)
HSE West: €45,275,421.66, 20,298 rows, 17.38% of the total claimed (the largest)
HSE West 2007
HSE West 2008
HSE West 2009
HSE West 2010 (to end June)
HSE West PH_T&S 2007 to 2010
HSE East (Right click and save as.., or open in new tab)
HSE East 2007
HSE East 2008
HSE East 2009
HSE East 2010 (to end June)
HSE East AP 2007
HSE East AP 2008
HSE East AP 2009
HSE East AP 2010 (to end June)
HSE Southeast
HSE Southeast, all years
HSE Midwest
HSE Northeast
HSE Northeast Jan – Mar 2007
HSE Northeast Apr – Jun 2007
HSE Northeast Jul – Sep 2007
HSE Northeast Oct – Dec 2007
HSE Northeast Jan – Mar 2008
HSE Northeast Apr – Jun 2008
HSE Northeast Jul – Sep 2008
HSE Northeast Oct – Dec 2008
HSE Northeast Jan – Mar 2009
HSE Northeast Apr – Jun 2009
HSE Northeast Jul – Sep 2009
HSE Northeast Oct – Dec 2009
Lots of people on that list for just one region.
Do you know why so many are claiming travel and subsistence? Are they moving around a lot?
Great work!
Do the HSE charge more than the standard €15 for the release of this much information?
There are individual accounts recorded of €10,000 to €15,000 single claims. Is it any wonder there’s nothing left! It is frankly; obscene.
Found the home helps claims for travel and exes somewhat unusual–amount claimed varied from 5-6000 euro to just 61 cent. Contacted HSE HQ and was told by a press officer there that she was unaware that home helps were paid travel and sub.Can anyone throw some light on this.?