A.V. Blair via e-mail 
[FOI #30925 email] 
 
 
16 April 2010 
 
Dear Sir/Madam, 
 
Freedom of Information Request - RFI20100404 
 
Thank you for your request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (“the Act”) received on 17 March 
2010, seeking the following information:   
 
Would you please provide me the results for the last 30 candidates who undertook an assessment to be 
considered for an interview for employment/redeployment/promotion by the Afghan Stream of the BBC     
World Service. 
      
For each candidate I would like to know the following: 
 
•  the ethnic group of the candidate (Pashtun or non-Pashtun) 
•  the score for the assessment 
•  the enthnicity of the person doing the scoring (Pashtun or non-Pashtun)  
•  whether the candidate was put through for interview following the assessment whether the 
candidate was successful, following interview, in gaining employment/redeployment/promotion 
 
Under section 40(2) of the Act, personal information about living individuals is exempt if disclosure to a 
third party would breach one or more principles of the Data Protection Act 1998.  As individuals who 
work at the BBC do not expect the information you have requested details to be disclosed to a third party, 
to do so would be unfair; therefore, disclosure would breach the First Data Protection Principle, fairness. 
 
However, we can provide some information which does not identify individuals. 
 
The BBC does not record information on ethnic background to the level of detail you have asked for 
therefore we are unable to supply information requested, however we have supplied the ethnic group of 
the candidates, if they supplied this during the application process.  We do not hold this information on the 
assessors. 
 
 

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The table below shows the information requested for the last 32 candidates to have applied for positions 
within the Afghan stream.  These statistics relate to the following 3 roles: 
 
Producer Dari, Afghan Stream 
Broadcast and Online Assistants  
Producer, (Dari) Kabul Office, Afghan Stream 
 
The last recruitment campaign is not yet complete, so we cannot advise on the total of hired staff at this 
stage. 
 
Failed 
Passed 
Outcome 
Applied 
Assessment 
Assessment Interviewed  Hired Unknown 
32 21  11 11 
5 
6 
 
 
The ethnic breakdown of the 32 candidates who applied is shown in the table below. 
 
Ethnic 
Ethnic 
Prefer 
Majority 
Minority 
not to say 
4 19 9 
 
 
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 
 
 
 

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