FOI2026/00342 – Annual completed benefit-risk reports (BRRs)
Published 22 May 2026
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Your request
Please provide the annual completed benefit-risk reports (BRRs) provided by the Marketing Authorisation Holders (MAHs) and also where appropriate if before 2024 the Periodic Safety Update Reports (PSURs), for the following products:
- Advantage 250 mg spot on VM - 52127/5158 Elanco imidacloprid
- Itch flea 268mg spot on VM = 08749/5101 Chanelle methoprin fipronil
- Bob martin clear 268mg spot on VM- 52797/5001 Pets Choice fipronil
- Seresto collar VM - 52127/5107 Elanco flumethrin imidacloprid
- Frontline spot on 402mg VM - 05653/5053 Virbac fipronil
- Fleascreen spot on 402mg VM - 01656/4157 KRKA, d.d., Novo mesto fipronil
These to cover the last six years from 2019 to 2025/26.
Our reply
You have asked us to disclose copies of Benefit–Risk Reports (BRRs) and Periodic Safety Update Reports (PSURs). Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA), the right of access is a right to information, not a right to receive specific documents in their entirety. We are therefore not obliged to provide these reports themselves.
Having considered your request, we are refusing to disclose the BRR and PSUR documents. Disclosure of these documents would be likely to prejudice the commercial interests of the companies concerned because the reports contain proprietary analytical methods, safety evaluations, product performance data and other sensitive information. We are therefore applying Section 43(2) (Prejudice to Commercial Interests).
We have considered whether it would be possible to disclose the reports in a redacted form. However, because commercially sensitive and confidential material makes up the overwhelming majority of each document, any redacted version would consist largely of blacked‑out pages and would offer little or no meaningful value to you. This assessment is consistent with ICO guidance on the use of exemptions and refusals where documents contain extensive exempt material.
For clarity, while we cannot release the BRR or PSUR documents themselves, you are entitled to request specific information contained within them. If you would like particular data points or defined categories of information, we may be able to extract and disclose those parts, provided they are not themselves exempt under any other relevant FOIA exemption.
If you wish to pursue this, please refine your request to specify the information (rather than documents) you are seeking. This new request would allow us to consider the revised scope afresh and determine whether it can be completed within the FOIA cost and time thresholds.