Richard Wells via e-mail
[FOI #23687 email]
15th December 2009
Dear Mr Wells,
Freedom of Information request – RFI20091615
Thank you for your request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (“the Act”) received on 24th
November 2009 seeking the following information:
“Of the top 170 BBC managers how many went to either Oxford or Cambridge University?”
The BBC only started to collect the information relating to the monitoring of the educational background
for job applicants in 2007. For those BBC managers who joined the BBC before 2007 this information
would only be available from individuals’ application forms held by BBC HR Direct Recruitment, which are
kept for three years from the date of application and then destroyed. It is likely, therefore, that the
educational details for many of these managers would no longer be held. In the case of individuals for
whom the information you requested is still held, we anticipate that it would take BBC staff more than two
and a half days to retrieve the information from individuals’ application forms. Under section 12 of the Act,
we are allowed to refuse to handle the request if it would exceed the appropriate limit. The appropriate
limit has been set by the Regulations (SI 2004/3244) as being £450 (equivalent to two and a half days work,
at an hourly rate of £25).
I hope this response satisfies your request.
Your Appeal Rights:
If you are not satisfied with this response you have the right to an internal review by a BBC senior
manager. Please contact us at the following address: BBC Freedom of Information, Room 2252, White
City, 201 Wood Lane, London W12 7TS, explaining what you would like us to review and including your
reference number: If you are not satisfied with the internal review, you can appeal to the Information
Commissioner. The contact details are: Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane,
Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF, telephone 01625 545 700 or see http://www.ico.gov.uk/
Yours sincerely
Robert Johnston
BBC People
