Wales Office | Swyddfa Cymru

Gwydyr House
Whitehall
London
SW1A 2NP

Tŷ Gwydyr
Whitehall
Llundain
SW1A 2NP

Tel/Ffôn: 020 7270 0558
Fax/Ffacs: 020 7270 0588
E-mail/E-bost: [email address]

30 September 2009

Dear Mr Jones

Freedom of Information request 270: recruitment

Thank you for your email of 1 September 2009 seeking an internal review of the
Wales Office’s handling of this request, and for elucidating that your concerns
had arisen from temporary promotions in particular.

The reply to your request acknowledged that it was some days outside the
statutory time limit, because of staff absences in August, and apologised. In
seeking clarification of your concerns I added my own apology for this too.

You alleged that Wales Office staff had ‘deliberately misinterpreted and ignored
parts of [your] question in order to avoid answering truthfully and to withhold
information’. This is a grave charge. I can find no foundation for it. On the
contrary, my staff gave you information going beyond your request.

With the imminent change of Director, it will be valuable to the Office to have a
base record of staff in post and how they reached present grades. I therefore
commissioned a major exercise by my HR manager to produce this. As a
result, I can now give you a wealth of information, far more than you requested,
showing staff recruitment in recent years on a systematic basis. This

information was not available to disclose when we responded to your original
request, but has been generated since.

Your request of 18 July 2009 referred to the Civil Service Order in Council 1995.
The Civil Service Commissioners’ Code relates only to recruitment into the civil
service from outside, as our reply said. The line “As such no permanent staff
have been substantively recruited or promoted in the last 3 years without fair
and open competition being applied” sought to meet your question – on staff
who had been “recruited” or “promoted” – accurately, precisely and with helpful
clarification.

You asked for paperwork relating to any staff who had been recruited or
promoted without fair and open competition. There were none, so this part of
your request had nothing to apply to.

Were you to seek papers on individual appointments, we should have to
consider the rights of individuals to have some employment details kept private.
It is also relevant that in line with the MoJ’s record retention policy, conforming
to data protection principles, we do not hold papers on competitions for more
than 12 months. We periodically destroy old papers, and did so a few months
ago, after our new HR manager took up post.

Reverting to your present request, my Office went on to volunteer additional
information, beyond your request, in case your query had arisen from concerns
about the temporary promotion of three key senior managers.

Through the special exercise mentioned – which would not have been
warranted to respond to an FOI request alone, but serves a business need - I
have now obtained information which covers the full six years you asked for in
seeking this internal review.

In the last six years the Wales Office has followed the recruitment policies of
three organisations; the National Assembly for Wales, the Department for
Constitutional Affairs, and now the Ministry of Justice. In all three the
recruitment policies and practices meet the Civil Service Commissioners’ Code
and equality best practice. Internal recruitments, while not covered by the
Code, follow its principles, taking account of the staff we have, and business
need. If we have a post to offer internally, we first consider staff in the same
grade who have been displaced within the Ministry of Justice, and need to be
redeployed. Then staff already in the Wales Office have opportunity to apply, in
their existing grade or on promotion, in response to a Ministry wide
advertisement (which may be run in the Welsh Assembly Government too,
seeking staff on loan from there). If we do not find a suitable candidate through
these processes, we consider advertising across the civil service. If this too
fails we may seek to recruit externally, but as this adds to the overall size of the
civil service, we do so only with Ministry of Justice approval, which is sparingly
given.

We choose to apply the Code’s principles of fair and open competition to
internal selections, as a matter of policy. Posts are advertised, and a panel sifts

applications and interviews applicants. Posts are offered to candidates in order
of merit. Candidates are judged on their competence for the role and against
consistent criteria of assessment.

The Code, now the “Civil Service Commissioners Recruitment Principles”, has
nine exceptions. The only exception we have applied in the last six years is for
“short term appointments up to a maximum of 2 years”, which we have used
when posts are not permanent, or where we have trawled internally but have
not been given permission to recruit externally.

Annex A shows all recruitment activity for the last six financial years. A
recruitment campaign was held for every post, except the redeployments or
internal transfers, which were lateral moves, at the same grade, not promotions.
Different considerations apply if we take someone in a casual role, who cannot
then become established as a civil servant without successfully going through
the external recruitment process.

Temporary promotion in the civil service is at managerial discretion, offered to
cover maternity or paternity leave, extended sick leave or posts vacant while
being advertised or where a recruitment campaign has failed to secure suitable
appointees. Whenever we have offered temporary promotion, we have told
those concerned that temporary promotion “must not be regarded as conveying
any expectation of, or any right to, substantive promotion. To achieve
substantive promotion it is necessary to be a successful applicant for a vacant
post following a recruitment campaign.”

The force of this has been shown in the case of the temporary promotions
referred to in our earlier response; one person was successful, one was
unsuccessful, and one chose not to apply.

It was helpful that you drew attention to our organisation charts. These show
the organisation in functional lines, and for this purpose use ‘temporary
promotion’ or ‘TP’ as convenient shorthand, not seeking to describe a person’s
exact employment status. Thus some staff marked on the charts as having ‘TP’
are, to be exact, receiving a temporary responsibility allowance, for doing work
beyond the requirements of their grade, as opposed to being temporarily
promoted into a higher grade. A full list of people who have received temporary
promotion in the last six years is at Annex B.

With the benefit of this new comprehensive report, it is evident that our
statement – which was part of the additional information volunteered - that there
were only three temporary promotions exceeding one year was slightly
inaccurate. There were another two cases at lower grade where it extended up
to 16 months. But in all cases such promotions had come to an end, with
substantive promotions following fair and open competition, by the time of our
original response.

I hope this detailed information will show you that there was nothing misleading
in our response.

If you remain dissatisfied, following this internal review of our handling of your
request, you may apply to the Information Commissioner at:

Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

As I mentioned, I am now retiring from this Office. My successor is Fiona
Adams-Jones, who knows of your request and this review, and will be ready to
deal with any follow up queries you may have.

Yours sincerely

Alan Cogbill

ALAN COGBILL

Cardiff Office / Swyddfa Caerdydd
Wales Office, Discovery House, Scott Harbour, Cardiff Bay, Cardiff, CF10 4HA.
Swyddfa Cymru, Tŷ Discovery, Harbwr Scott, Bae Caerdydd, Caerdydd, CF10 4HA.

Website: www.walesoffice.gov.uk / Gwefan: www.swyddfa.cymru.gov.uk

ANNEX A - OVERVIEW OF WALES OFFICE RECRUITMENT 2003-2009

Total level of recruitment over last 6 years
Financial  Total no.
Total no.
Total no.
No. of staff in each grade
Year
of new
of staff
of staff
SCS G6  G7 SEO HEO EO
staff
promoted
transferred
recruited
internally
internally
to Civil
within Civil  on lateral
Service
Service
grade
2003-04
1
12
7
0 2 3 3  5  3
2004-05
2
6
4
0 0 0 1  2  4
2005-06
2
14
10
2 2 1 1  8  5
2006-07
4
7
3
0 2 1 3  1  3
2007-08
4
7
8
0 1 4 0  4  4
2008-09
2
16
5
1 0 4 6  4  2
2009-10
0
7
3
4 0 1 1  3  0
To date

Abbreviations used in Tables below
P  = Promotion  TP
= Temporary Promotion LT
= Lateral Transfer at same grade  R

ANNEX A continued - DETAILED INFORMATION RELATING TO
RECRUITMENT 2003-2009

2003-04
Grade Title
Action
G6
Principal Private Secretary To Secretary Of State
Internal Recruitment (P)
TP G6
Strategy Policy Adviser & Deputy Director
Internal Recruitment (TP)
G7
Head Of Local Government & Transport
Internal Recruitment (P)
G7
Head Of Social Affairs Policy
Internal Recruitment (LT)
Deputising G7
Head Of Economic Affairs
Internal Recruitment (TP)
HEO
Parliamentary Clerk
Internal Recruitment (P)
HEO
Policy Manager
Internal Recruitment (P)
HEO
Policy Adviser (Local Government & Transport)
Internal Recruitment (P)
HEO
Personal Secretary to Head Of Division
Internal Recruitment (P)
HEO
Team Leader Industry & Employment
Internal Recruitment (LT)
EO
Adviser Economic & External Affairs
Internal Recruitment (LT)
EO
Policy Officer Health & Social Care
Internal Recruitment (P)
EO
Diary Secretary
Internal Recruitment (P)
AO Administrative
Clerk
Internal Recruitment (P)
AO Accommodation
Officer
Internal Recruitment (P)
AO
Branch Support Officer
Internal Recruitment (LT)
AO Administrative
Officer
Internal Recruitment (LT)
AO Administrative
Officer
Fixed Term Appointment (
AA
Messenger
Internal Recruitment (LT)
Driver
Driver
Internal Recruitment (LT)

2004-05

Grade Title
Action
SEO
Head of Finance & Administrative
Internal Recruitment (P)
HEO
Finance Officer
Internal Recruitment (P)
HEO
Team Leader Social Affairs
Internal Recruitment (LT)
EO
Policy Officer
Internal Recruitment (P)
EO
Policy Adviser
Internal Recruitment (P)
EO
Accommodation & Estates Manager Internal Recruitment (P)
EO
Policy Adviser
Internal Recruitment (P)
AO
Personnel Officer
Internal Recruitment (LT)
AO Correspondence
Clerk
External Recruitment (R)
AO
Personnel Officer
Internal Recruitment (LT)
AO
Team Support
Fixed Term Appointment (R)
AA Messenger
Redeployed
(LT)

2005-06

Grade Title
Action
SCS Director
Managed
Move
(LT)
TP SCS
Principal Private Secretary to Secretary Of State
Internal Recruitment (TP)
G6
Strategy Policy Adviser & Deputy Director
Internal Recruitment (P)
G6
Head of Finance & Corp Services
Internal Recruitment (P)
G7
Head of Strategic Policy Branch
Internal Recruitment (P)
SEO
Senior Parliamentary Clerk
Internal Recruitment (P)
HEO
Finance Manager
Internal Recruitment (LT)
HEO
Team Leader Health
Internal Recruitment (P)
HEO
Team Leader Economic Affairs
Internal Recruitment (P)
HEO
Team Leader
Internal Recruitment (P)
HEO
Team Leader Or
Internal Recruitment (P)
HEO
Team Leader Social Affairs 2
Internal Recruitment (LT)
HEO
Policy Adviser
Internal Recruitment (P)
HEO
Team Leader
Internal Recruitment (LT)
EO
Asst Private Secretary
Internal Recruitment (P)
EO
Policy Officer
Internal Recruitment (P)
EO
Asst Private Secretary To PUSS
Internal Recruitment (P)
EO
Legislation Strategy Policy Adviser
Internal Recruitment (LT)
EO
Policy Officer Branch 2
Internal Recruitment (LT)
PS Personal
Secretary
Managed
Move(LT)
AO
Branch Support Officer
Internal Recruitment (LT)
AO
Accommodation Officer
Internal Recruitment (LT)
AO
Team Support
Fixed Term Appointment (R)
AO Finance
Officer
External Recruitment (R)
AO
Correspondence Asst
Internal Recruitment (P)
AO
Personal Secretary/Office Manager
Internal Recruitment (LT)

2006/07

Grade Title
Action
G6 Legislation
Adviser
Internal
Recruitme
G6
Head of Communications and Chief Press Officer
External Recruitme
G7
Head of Economic and European policy
Internal Recruitme
SEO
Policy Team Leader
Internal Recruitme
SEO
Private Secretary to Parliamentary Under Secretary of State
Internal Recruitme
SEO
Private Secretary to Secretary of State
Internal Recruitme
SIO
Senior Information Officer Internal
Recruitme
HEO
Team Leader Economic Affairs
Internal Recruitme
EO
Accommodation Manager
Internal Recruitme
EO
Policy Adviser
Internal Recruitme
EO
Parliamentary Asst
Internal Recruitme
AO
Finance Officer
External Recruitme
AO
Branch Support
Fixed Term Appoin
AO
Branch Support
Fixed Term Appoin

2007/08

Grade Title
Action
G6 Legislation
Adviser
Internal Recruitment (P)
G7
Head of Legislation and Strategy Policy
Internal Recruitment (P)
G7
Head of Strategy Policy
Internal Recruitment (P)
G7
Head of Legislation Policy
Internal Recruitment (LT)
G7
Head of Policy Briefing
Internal Recruitment (LT)
HEO
Policy Adviser
Internal Recruitment (P)
HEO
Parliamentary Clerk
Internal Recruitment (LT)
HEO
Policy Adviser 3 Team
Internal Recruitment (LT)
HEO
Policy Adviser
Internal Recruitment (LT)
IO Information
Officer
Fixed Term Appointment (R)
EO
Diary Sec to Parliamentary Under Secretary of State
Internal Recruitment (P)
EO
Asst Private Secretary
Internal Recruitment (LT)
EO
Corporate Services Records Manager
Internal Recruitment (P)
EO
Finance Officer
Internal Recruitment (P)
AO
Branch Support Officer
Internal Recruitment (LT)
AO
Accommodation Officer
Redeployed (LT)
AO Correspondence
Asst
Fixed Term Appointment (R)
AO
Finance Officer
Fixed Term Appointment (R)
AO Team
Support
Fixed Term Appointment (R)

2008-09

Grade Title
Action
TP SCS
Principal Private Secretary to Secretary of State
Internal Recruitment (TP)
G7
Head of Finance & Governance
Internal Recruitment (P)
G7
Head of Corporate Services
Internal Recruitment (LT)
G7
Head of Legislation Programme Branch
Internal Recruitment (P)
G7
Head of Economic Policy
Internal Recruitment (P) reserve
SEO
Strategic Adviser
Internal Recruitment (P)
SEO Legislation
Programme
Manager
Internal Recruitment (P)
SEO
Private Secretary to Secretary of State
Managed Move (LT)
SEO Legislation
Policy
Adviser

Internal Recruitment (P)
SEO Legislation
Policy
Adviser
Internal Recruitment (P)
SEO
Cabinet Support Officer
Internal Recruitment (P)
SEO
Legislation Programme Manager
Internal Recruitment (P)
HEOD
Policy Adviser
Fast Stream Transfer (LT)
HEO D
Policy Adviser
Internal Recruitment (LT)
HEO
Policy Briefing Adviser
Internal Recruitment (P)
HEO
Policy Team Leader
MOJ External Recruitment (P)
HEO
Policy Adviser
MOJ External Recruitment (P)
HEO
Policy Adviser
MOJ External Recruitment (P)
IO Info
Officer
Internal Recruitment (P)
EO
Asst Private Secretary
Internal Recruitment (P) reserve
EO Legislation
Policy
Adviser
Fixed Term Appointment (R)
AO Branch
Support
Fixed
Term Appointment (R)
AO
Finance officer
Redeployed (LT)

2009-10

Grade Title
Action
SCS
Director
Internal Recruitment (LT within S
SCS
Principal Private Secretary to Secretary of State Internal Recruitment (P)
SCS
Head of Policy & Strategy
Internal Recruitment (P)
SCS
Head of Legislation
Internal Recruitment (P)
G7
Head of HR
Internal Recruitment (LT)
SEO
Senior Policy Adviser
Internal Recruitment (P) reserve
HEO
Policy Adviser
Internal Recruitment (P)
HEO
Policy Adviser
Internal Recruitment (P)
HEO
Policy Adviser
Internal Recruitment (P)
EA Executive
Asst
Internal Recruitment (LT)

ANNEX B - OVERVIEW INFORMATION RELATING TO STAFF ON
TEMPORARY PROMOTION (TP) 2003-2009

Total Number of staff receiving TP over last 6 years
Financial  Total no. of staff
No. of staff in each grade
Year
commencing TP
SCS G6 G7 SEO HEO EO AO
2003-04
4

1 1 1  1
2004-05
3
    1  1  1
2005-06
8
1  1
4 1 1

2006-07
0

2007-08
6
1  3
2
2008-09
1
1
2009-10
1

1


To date

DETAILED INFORMATION RELATING TO TEMPORARY PROMOTION (TP)
2003-2009

Job Title
Grade  Length  Justification
of
on TP
Post
2003-04

Head of Economic
G6
6 mths
Substantive G6 left.  Post advertised through fair and
Affairs and Deputy
basis. Not offered substantively as National Assemb
Director
increase its headcount at this level. Post-holder retu
substantive grade as G7.
Head of Economic
G7
22 mths  Substantive G7 left.  Post advertised through fair and
Affairs
basis. Not offered substantively as National Assemb
increase its headcount at this level. Post-holder retu
substantive grade as SEO.
Job Title
Grade  Length  Justification
of
on TP
Post
2003-04 continued

Projects SEO
8
mths
Temporary
Project Role created to assist Deputy Dir
Maternity Leave
Policy Adviser
HEO
20 mths  To cover above post-holder’s role.
2004-05

Team leader
SEO
10 mths  Substantive SEO on maternity leave.
Parliamentary Clerk
HEO
6 wks
To cover paternity leave
Accommodation
EO 11  Substantive EO left. Post role was expanded to cove
Manager
months
Person given TP until post finally advertised. Industri
open competition in being promoted substantially.
2005-06

Principal Private
SCS 3yrs
11 Substantive G6 left. Post advertised at this level but
Secretary to
mths
of additional responsibilities at Deputy Director level.
Secretary of State
alternative Deputy Director post when SoS changed.
and Deputy Director
fair and open competition in being promoted substan

Head of Strategic
G7
3 mths
Branch Reorganised.  Exiting G7 promoted. Current
Policy
post advertised. Individual successful following fair a
promoted substantially
Private Secretary to
SEO 15
Post regarded and current post-holder offered TP un
Parliamentary Under
months   successful following fair and open competition in bein
Secretary of State
Legislative Policy
SEO
17 mths  Post regarded. Post-holder offered TP until post adv
Adviser
following fair and open competition in being promote

Job Title
Grade  Length  Justification
of
on TP
Post
2005-06 continued

Senior Parliamentary  SEO
3 mths
Office re-organisation. New post created. Post-hold
Clerk
advertised. Individual successful following fair and op
promoted substantially

2004-05 continued

HR Manager
SEO
3 yrs 6
HEO post advertised but no appointment made. Pos
mths
management and offered on a TP basis.
Team Leader
HEO
4
Substantive HEO left and the post remained unfilled
months
temporary basis whilst recruitment underway. Individ
and open competition in being promoted substantiall
Correspondence
EO
2 mths
Substantive EO left and the post remained unfilled fo
Manager
temporary basis whilst recruitment underway but Ind
2006-07 None
2007-08

Head of Policy and
SCS
30 mths  Post regarded. Post-holder offered TP until post adv
Strategy & Deputy
unsuccessful following fair and open competition.
Director
Head of Policy
G7
6 weeks New G7 post created. Person given TP until post fin
Briefing
successful following fair and open competition.
Head of Finance and
G7 7
Organisational Review following Departure of G6. 2
Corporate
months
instead. Individual covered both posts during recruit
Governance
Head of Policy
G7
7 mths
Substantive G7 left. Person given TP until post final
Briefing
unsuccessful following fair and open competition.
Job Title
Grade  Length  Justification
of
on TP
Post
2007-08 continued

Legislative
SEO
16 mths  Post regarded. Post-holder offered TP until post adv
Programme Manager
following fair and open competition in being promote
Legislative Policy
SEO
6 mths
Post regarded. Post-holder offered TP until post adv
Adviser
following fair and open competition in being promote
2008-09

Principal Private
SCS
15 mths  Previous Post holder moved to different role at Depu
Secretary to
chose not to compete in the fair and open competitio
Secretary of State
Welsh Assembly Government

2009-10

Head of Strategic
G7 2mths
Substantive G7 left. Person given TP until post adve
Policy
to date
organisational structure at this time.

Document Outline

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