Mr John Walker
[FOI #407 email]
17th June 2008
SENT VIA EMAIL
Dear Mr Walker
Freedom of information request – RFI20080523
Thank you for your request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (“the Act”) dated 17th
May 2008. You requested the following information:
1. The names and ranks/grades of all British Broadcasting Corporation employees who are Common
Purpose "graduates".
2. Please detail total expenditure by British Broadcasting Corporation on Common Purpose courses for
each of the following years: 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008 to date.
As background, Common Purpose training was provided as a structured exercise to assist senior
editorial staff in building partnerships and developing knowledge, experience and contacts in their
local area. Staff who attended the course reported that it had been both a really useful
learning/training experience and had also opened up a huge network of contacts.
In order to respond in full to your questions, the BBC would need to carry out an audit of each of
its departments. This is due to the fact that the BBC does not have a centralised system for
recording staff training, and it would therefore be necessary to individually check each staff
member’s training record. As there are over 20,000 staff currently at the BBC, we estimate that to
carry out this search would take more than two and a half days. 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). On this basis we cannot provide you with an
exhaustive list of BBC staff who have received Common Purpose training, or an exact figure for
the amount spent on this training in the last 10 financial years.
However, in 2005 the BBC began using a centralised SAP financial system to record such things as
costs associated with training. We were able to search the system using the key words ‘Common
Purpose’, and found that between 2001 and 2007, there are records of three BBC Radio
Lancashire staff having attended the training. These staff are Ben Thompson (Assistant Editor),
John Clayton (Editor, Local Radio) and Alison Brown (Senior Broadcast Journalist).
From the information we can retrieve from our SAP system, we can confirm that the amount
spent on Common Purpose training over 2001 to 2005 was £30,105. Since 2005, the BBC spent
£24,646 on Common Purpose training in the fiscal year 2006-2007 and £18,255.50 in the fiscal
year 2007-2008.
Appeal Rights
If you are not satisfied with this response you have the right to an internal review by a BBC senior
manager or legal adviser. Please contact us at the address above, 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
Julia de Oliveira
Information Rights Advisor
