ACOBA appointments database information

Mr McKinnon made this Freedom of Information request to Advisory Committee on Business Appointments

The request was partially successful.

From: Mr McKinnon

5 August 2009

Dear Sir or Madam,

I understand that ACOBA holds on a database:

- information on applications from former Ministers requiring the
Advisory Committee's advice regarding appointments they wish to
take up after leaving office; and

- information on requests for the Advisory Committee's advice on
applications from the most senior Crown servants who wish to take
up outside appointments.

Under the Freedom of Information Act, please can I be sent emailed
copies of:

1) The definition of the database, specifically for each database
table:

- the name of the table;

- the number of rows in the table;

- the name and format of each field in the table.

2) The name of the database field(s) you use to determine whether
an appointment has been taken up.

3) The full database dump of these tables, preferably to CSV text
format.

Please delete as little of the database copy as possible, and
please quote any exemption you have applied in the case of each
type of data you are blanking out.

Yours faithfully,

Mr McKinnon

---

Notes:

A) Part (1) of my request should be easy since it is very unlikely
there could be anything confidential in the database definition.
The SQL queries to get the database definition should be easy and
quick to run. For *example* the SQL queries and results might look
like:

> show tables;

| Tables_in_database |

| appointees |

| appointments |

> select count(*) from appointments;

| count(*) |

| 2055 |

> describe appointments;

| Field | Type |

| id | int(11) |

| appointee_id | int(11) |

| title | varchar(255) |

| organisation_name | varchar(255) |

| organisation_id | int(11) |

| acoba_advice | text |

| date_tendered | date |

| date_taken_up | date |

... etc

B) Part (2) of my request should also be easy to answer. For
*example*, you might determine an appointment has been taken up by
checking that the date_taken_up field in the appointments table is
not empty.

C) Given the answer for (2) it should be easy to split the data
into two groups, one for appointments that have been taken up and
are therefore unlikely to be confidential, and one for appointments
that have not been taken up where the applicant may not want this
information to be public.

Depending on what columns there are in the database, some of the
fields may be sufficiently confidential that it is not in the
public interest to disclose their contents. For example, it may
contain the National Insurance number of the applicant. If you are
using MS Access, then the command for copying and dumping the
database table without such a column looks like this:

COPY TABLE A TO A_copy

A_copy.delete("NI number")

A_copy.dump("A_table.txt")

If you are having any difficulty, I will be happy to advise you of
the database commands which, on today's computer equipment, is
unlikely to take more than a few seconds to run.

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Advisory Committee on Business Appointments

6 August 2009

Dear Mr McKinnon

I am writing to confirm that we received your request below under FOI yesterday. I can also confirm that we do have a database which holds records appertaining to requests from former Ministers for advice about appointments they wish to take up after leaving office.

We shall be in touch again in due course concerning the other details of your request.

Roger Sampson
Office of the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments
35 Great Smith Street
London
SW1P 3BQ

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Advisory Committee on Business Appointments

3 September 2009

Dear Mr McKinnon

We apologise for not responding yet to your request but we hope to do so soon, and no later than two weeks from now, once we have consulted with our section 36 ‘qualified person’ and completed all relevant public interest tests.

Yours sincerely

Roger Sampson
Office of the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments
35 Great Smith Street
London
SW1P 3BQ

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Advisory Committee on Business Appointments

11 September 2009

Attachment ACOBA DB.rtf
1023K Download View as HTML

Dear Mr McKinnon,

In your e-mail dated 5 August 2009 you requested, under the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 (FOIA), copies of the following relating to databases
maintained by this office:

(1) The definition of the database, specifically for each database
table:

. the name of the table;

. the number of rows in the table;

. the name and format of each field in the table.

(2) The name of the database field(s) you use to determine whether an
appointment has been taken up.

(3) The full database dump of these tables, preferably to CSV text
format.

With regard to (1) we do not hold any documentation detailing the
definition of the access database used by us to record business
appointment applications referred to this office. However, in order to
comply with your request we have asked our current I.T. contractor to use
the existing functionality of the software to produce an analysis of the
database which we believe provides the detailed information requested
about the structure of our database and this is attached.

With regard to (2) I can confirm that the field used to determine whether
an appointment has been taken up is named `Appointment Accepted'.

With regard to (3), I can confirm that we hold the information you are
seeking and we have considered your request carefully. It is the opinion
of our Chairman, Lord Lang of Monkton, who is our "qualified person" under
section 36 the Act, that most of the information you are requesting is
exempt from disclosure under section 36(2)(b) and (c) of the Act. This is
because disclosure of the information would, or would be likely to,
inhibit the free and frank provision of advice or the free and frank
exchange of views for the purposes of deliberation, or would otherwise
prejudice, or would be likely otherwise to prejudice, the effective
conduct of public affairs.

We further consider that a substantial part of the information held is
also exempt from disclosure as it is covered by section 40 of the Act
(personal data) or section 41 of the Act (information provided in
confidence). Some of the information is covered by section 40(2) of the
Act because it is the personal data of another person, and to disclose it
would be in breach of the first data principle which requires personal
data to be processed fairly and lawfully. Some of the information is also
covered by section 41 of the Act because it is information which was
provided in confidence.

Where information is not covered by the exemptions listed above it is
published by us under our publication scheme, initially on our website but
then in our annual reports which are available in hard copy on request for
those without access to the internet. It is therefore already available
to you and so exempt from disclosure under section 21 of the Act, and
there is no obligation on us under the FOIA to provide it to you in the
alternative format requested.

Since we consider that section 36 of the Act applies, we have carried out
an assessment of the balance of public interest. I am therefore setting
out in this letter the basis on which we have concluded that the public
interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in
disclosure of the information. We wish to ensure that there is no
misunderstanding of our concern about the risk to the business
appointments process, and thus to the public interest, that would be
caused by the disclosure of information about individual cases and the
deliberations on them.

We recognise that there is a general public interest in the conduct of the
Advisory Committee's affairs being open and transparent. We also
recognise that there is a proper public interest in ensuring that the
Guidelines for former Ministers and the Rules for Crown servants which
govern their scrutiny process are fully disclosed and accessible. If an
appointment is approved and taken up under these rules, we publish all the
relevant details, including the name of the applicant, their previous
official post, their new post, the date on which it was taken up and any
conditions or safeguards the Committee have recommended. We also make
public the date on which they gave their advice, and whether the advice
given was unanimous or if one or more members of the Committee dissented
from it.

This is, however, an unusual regulatory area, affecting the personal
reputations and employment of individuals who have ceased to be Ministers
or Crown servants. It is equally critical to the effectiveness of the
business appointment systems for both these groups that applicants (and
others subsequently consulted in confidence about their appointments)
should have no concern about providing fully and frankly all the
information required for a fair and proper judgement of their
applications. Any reservations that individuals might have could mislead
the Committee into making an unsound recommendation. Indeed, the
withholding of any relevant facts or considerations would invalidate their
scrutiny process, making the system as a whole worthless.

There would be a similar risk to the public interest in maintaining a
rigorous and effective system if the records of the deliberation process
were to be disclosed, either wholly or selectively. The knowledge that
the internal deliberations of the Committee might be disclosed would be
more likely to inhibit than assist full and frank discussion of the case,
and could also frustrate dealings with applicants and their Departments.

Having weighed up the above considerations, we have no doubt that the
public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest
in the disclosure of the background information you request.

If you are unhappy with this decision, you may write to me to ask for an
internal review by the Committee. If you are not then content with their
reply, you have the right to apply directly to the Information
Commissioner for a decision. The Information Commissioner can be
contacted at:

Information Commissioner's Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

Yours sincerely

Roger Sampson

Office of the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments

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From: Mr McKinnon

5 November 2009

Dear Sir or Madam,

In response to your email dated 11 September 2009, I would like to
ask for an internal review over the non-disclosure of even a
redacted copy of the information held in your database.

Because the structure of the database in which this information is
held has been disclosed, it is now possible to be specific about
what information is being exempted.

It was claimed that parts of this database are exempt under Section
40 (Personal Information) and Section 41 (Information provided in
confidence).

I concede that Section 40 might apply to DateOfBirth, and Section
41 might apply to ConcernSecrets.

However, the fields PostTitle, DateReferredPM, PMAgrees, and
FollowUp cannot possibly be included in these exemptions as they
are neither personal information nor information provided in
confidence.

Many of these fields (including those four mentioned) have no
practical implication to Section 36 (Prejudice to effective conduct
of public affairs). There is a well understood distinction between
(a) the contents of advice given between two parties, and (b) the
fact that advice was given. The latter (b) is often disclosed under
FOI, without confusing it with the former (a).

Finally, the documents published by you under your publication
scheme -- which happen to be in an unreadable format for processing
-- include very little of the information that is available in the
database.

In particular, the documents are comprised of four columns of data
for a few named individuals, followed by some summary statistical
tables (thought to be useful) on several hundred other officials.
Most of these summary tables are broken down by department. They
are not, for example, summarised by rank or by employer name. Nor
is there any information about what types of "Conditional Approval"
are applied.

Clearly, these publications do not come anywhere near satisfying
the conditions in Section 21 (Information accessible to applicant
by other means) due to their lack of detail.

I would like to receive at least a redacted copy of this database.
There are two options for disclosure. Either the names of the
people are kept in place, and some of the information is redacted
owing to its personal nature; or the names are redacted, in which
case most of the information can be disclosed for the purpose of
generating my own statistical tables that are of more use than
those chosen for presentation in the reports.

Yours faithfully,

Mr McKinnon

===

For reference, I have included below a list of the database tables
and fields which were disclosed in your initial response:

Table: CSAPPLICANT
---
ApplicantID: ID number of Applicant
Surname: Surname of Applicant
Initials: *** Initials of Applicant  
Title: Title of Applicant
Honours: Honours awarded to Applicant
DateOfBirth: Date of Birth of Applicant
DepartmentID: Government Department worked for
RankID: HM Forces Rank of Applicant  
SpecialAdviser: Is/was the Applicant a Special Adviser?
StatutoryOfficeHolder: Is/was the Applicant a Statutory Office
Holder?
GradeCategoryID: Grade Category of Applicant  
PostTitle: Title of Post held by Applicant as a Crown Servant
ReasonForLeavingID: Reason for leaving Crown servant post
JESPmin: JESP score - minimum (7 to 28)
JESPmax: JESP score - maximum (7 to 28)
JEGSmin: JEGS score - minimum (0 to 720)
JEGSmax: JEGS score - maximum (0 to 720)
LastDayInPost: Last day in post (date)
LastDayOfService: Last day of service (date)
apname: THIS FIELD IS FROM THE OLD SYSTEM
apgrade: THIS FIELD IS FROM THE OLD SYSTEM
apgrade_desc: THIS FIELD IS FROM THE OLD SYSTEM
paperRecord: Paper Record exists for this applicant

Table: CSAPPLICATION
---
recordID:
ApplicantID: Cross-reference to CSAPPLICANTS table
ApplicationID: Starts at 1 for each Applicant
DateReceived: Date Application Received in division
DateReferredG7_5: Date Application referred to G7/5 for decision
DateReferredB2: Date Application referred to B2
DateReferredHOCS: Date Application referred to Head of Civil
Service
Queried: Has this application bee queried
ReferredToACOBA: Was this application referred to ACOBA?
DateReferredACOBA: Date Application referred to ACOBA for advice
AppointmentAccepted: Appointment Taken Up?
DateTakenUp: Date appointment taken up
AnnouncementMade: Announcement made?
_DateToDepartmentOLD: ***** DUE TO BE REMOVED ********
DateReferredPM: Date Application referred to Prime Minister for
decision
DateCompleted: Date action completed/department notified
_WorkingDaysToCompleteOLD: Estimated working days to compete the
Application
IndependentConsultant: Independent Consultant
NewEmployerName: New Employer or Client name
NatureOfBusinessID: Nature of Business of New Employer or Client 
NatureOfJobID: Nature of new Job
AmbassadorVisiting: Ambassador, visiting/working in country of last
posting?
AmbassadorAdvice: Ambassador, providing advice/analysis on country
of last posting? 
Paid: Whether Paid or not - Yes/No/IC
Hours: Hours ("FT" or "PT)
DirectContact: Direct Contractual Contact
IndirectContact: Indirect Contractual Contact
NumberOfContracts: Number of Contracts
econvalue: THIS FIELD IS FROM THE OLD SYSTEM
ContractValue: Total value of Contract(s) in £
NonContractualContact: Non-contractual Contact
RegulatoryContact: Regulatory Contract?
PrivatisationInvolvement: Privatisation Involvement?
AccessToSecrets: Access to Trade Secrets?
ConcernRewards: Cause for Concern - Rewards?
ConcernSecrets: Cause for Concern - Trade Secrets?
ConcernPolicy: Cause for Concern - Impending Policy?
ConcernPerception: Cause for Concern - Public Perception?
ConcernOther: Cause for Concern - Other?
Comments: Comments by Office/HOHCS/ACOBA/PM
ApprovedUnconditionally: Application Approved Unconditionally?
AutoWaitApplies: Does the automatic waiting period apply to this
Grade/Rank?
AutoWaitAction: Automatic waiting period: 
(A)pplied, (E)xpired, (L)engthened, (W)aived
WaitingPeriodApplied: Waiting period applied?
WaitingPeriodLength: Length of Waiting Period in months
BehaviouralConditionsApplied: Behavioural Conditions applied?
BehaviouralConditionNature: Nature of Behavioural Condition applied
BehaviouralConditionLength: Length of Behavioural Condition in
months
ApplicationUnsuitable: Application considered Unsuitable
InternalQuarantine: Internal Quarantine?
QuarantineLength: Length of Internal Quarantine in months
Precedents: Precedents used for this application (Applicant ID
numbers)
FollowUp: Outcome to be followed up by department?
OpsRecommendationFollowed: OPS Recommendation followed?
PMAgrees: PM's/S of S decision is the same as ACOBA's advice?
PMAgreesReason: If PM/S of S does not agree, why
ExpectedStart: Date appointment expected to start
_OLDreportComment1: *** No Longer Used *** Comments for end of year
reports

Table: CSReasonForLeaving
---
CSReasonForLeavingID:
CSReasonForLeavingAbbrev: Abbreviated Crown Servants Reason For
Leaving
CSReasonForLeavingDescription: Crown Servants Reason For Leaving
Description
CSActiveFlag: Is this Crown Servants Reason For Leaving a current
one available

Table: CSReportComments
---
RecordID:
comment1:
comment2:

Table: CSTargets
---
TypeID:
ApplicationQueried: Used for grouping in reports
TypeGroup: Used for grouping in reports
Description:
DaysAllowed: Days allowed for Stage 1 Targets
DaysAllowed2: Days allowed for Stage 2 Targets
startDate:
endDate:
Stage1Within:
Stage1Off:
Stage1Percentage:
Stage2Within:
Stage2Off:
Stage2Percentage:

Table: dateExclusion
---
DateExcluded: Date to be excluded
Description: Why is the date excluded

Table: GovernmentDepartment
---
DepartmentID:
DepartmentAbbrev: Government Department Abbreviated Name
DepartmentName: Government Department full Name
DepartmentNotes: Notes - e.g. previous name(s) of this department
ActiveFlag: Is this Government Department a current one available
for new input? 

Table: GovernmentPost
---
GovernmentPostID:
GovernmentCode: 8 Character abreviation
GovernmentPostName: up to 50 characters

Table: GradeCategory
---
GradeCategoryID:
GradeCategoryCode: Grade Category Code (A1, B, etc.)
GradeCategoryName: Grade Category Name
ApplicantID: ID number of Applicant

Table: MAPPLICANT
---
Surname: Surname of Applicant
Initials: Initials of Applicant  
Title: Title of Applicant
Honours: Honours awarded to Applicant
PoliticalParty: Ministers Political Party
MostRecentPost: Most recent government post held by Applicant as a
Minister
DepartmentID: Government Department worked for
CabinetRank: Was minister Cabinet Rank
PreviousPost1: Previous Government post
PreviousPost2: Previous Government post
PreviousPost3: Previous Government post
LastDayInPost: Date left government
ReasonForLeavingID: Reason for leaving Minister post
paperRecord: Paper Record exists for this applicant

Table: Mapplication
---
recordID:
ApplicantID: Cross-reference to MAPPLICANTS table
ApplicationID: Starts at 1 for each Applicant
DateReceived: Date Application Received in division
DateToDept: Date infromation sent to department
ReferredToDept: Information received from department
DateReferred: Date referred to ACOBA
DateCompleted: Date completed/minister notified
WorkingDaysToComplete: Estimated working days to compete the
Application
NewEmployerName: New Employer or Client name
IndependentConsultant: Independent Consultant
NatureOfBusinessID: Nature of Business of New Employer or Client 
NatureOfJobID: Nature of new Job
Paid: Whether Paid or not - Yes/No/IC
Hours: Hours ("FT" or "PT)
DeptAndEmployer:
EmployerAndOthers:
ContractValue: Total value of Contract(s) in £
NonContractualContact: Non-contractual Contact
RegulatoryContact: Regulatory Contract?
PrivatisationInvolvement: Privatisation Involvement?
AccessToSecrets: Access to Trade Secrets?
ConcernRewards: Cause for Concern - Rewards?
ConcernSecrets: Cause for Concern - Trade Secrets?
ConcernPolicy: Cause for Concern - Impending Policy?
ConcernPerceptionOnly: Cause for Concern - Public Perception?
ConcernOther: Cause for Concern - Other?
ApprovedUnconditionally: Application Approved Unconditionally?
AutoWaitApplies: Does the automatic waiting period apply to this
Grade/Rank?
AutoWaitAction: Automatic waiting period: 
(A)pplied, (E)xpired, (L)engthened, (W)aived
WaitingPeriodAdvised: Only allowed if approved uncoditionally = N
WaitingPeriodLength: Length of waiting period ([mm] months)
ConsideredUnsuitable: Application considered unsuitable
UnsuitableDuration: Length considered unsuitable ([mm] months)
UndertakingAdvised:
UndertakingNature: Nature of undertaking
UndertakingLength: Length of undertaking ([mm] months)
InternalQuarantine: Internal Quarantine?
QuarantineLength: Length of Internal Quarantine in months
FollowUp: Outcome to be followed up by department?
Precedents: Precedents used for this application (Applicant ID
numbers)
AdviseFollowed: ACOBA's advise followed
AnnouncementMade:
ExpectedStart: Date appointment expected to start
AppointmentAccepted: Appointment taken up
DateTakenUp: Date appointment actually taken up
Comments: Appointment Comments
_OLDreportComment1: *** NO Longer USED ***Comments for end of year
reports

Table: MreasonForLeaving
---
MReasonForLeavingID:
MReasonForLeavingAbbrev: Abbreviated Ministers Reason For Leaving
MReasonForLeavingDescription: Ministers Reason For Leaving
Description
MActiveFlag: Is this Ministers Reason For Leaving a current one
available

Table: MreportComments
---
RecordID:
comment1:
comment2:

Table: Mtargets
---
TypeID:
Description:
DaysAllowed: Days allowed for Stage 1 Targets
startDate:
enddate:
Stage1Within:
Stage1Off:
Stage1Percentage:

Table: NatureOfBusiness
---
NatureOfBusinessID:
NatureOfBusinessDescription: Description of Nature Business of New
Employer
NatureOfBusinessComments: Comments

Table: NatureOfJob
---
NatureOfJobID:
NatureOfJobDescription: Description of Nature of new Job
ActiveFlag: Is this Nature of Job a current one available for new
input?

Table: PoliticalParty
---
PoliticalPartyID:
PoliticalPartyAbbrev: Abbreviated name of Political Party
PoliticalPartyName: Full Name of Political Party

Table: Rank
---
RankID:
RankAbbrev: HM Forces Rank Abbreviated Name
RankName: HM Forces Rank full Name
ActiveFlag: Is this Rank a current one available for new input?

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From: Mr McKinnon

16 November 2009

Dear Sir or Madam,

Can you please confirm you received my request for an internal
review? It was sent on 5 November 2009.

Yours faithfully,
Mr McKinnon

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Advisory Committee on Business Appointments

16 November 2009

Dear Mr McKinnon,

Your internal review request was received by this office on 6 November
and it is currently being actioned.

Yours sincerely,
Eamonn Moyles
Office of the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments

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Advisory Committee on Business Appointments

3 December 2009

Attachment McKinnon FOI Internal Review.pdf
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Dear Mr McKinnon,

As requested, an internal review has been conducted and our response is attached.

Yours sincerely,
Sue Pither
Secretary, Advisory Committee on Business Appointments

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Things to do with this request

Anyone:
Advisory Committee on Business Appointments only: