Follow this request
There is 1 person following this request
Act on what you've learnt
Similar requests
Search engine advertising bought by BBC in 2007
To British Broadcasting Corporation by Jane Black 27 February 2008
Cinema advertising expenditure 2008
To British Broadcasting Corporation by Ross Emans 29 December 2008
INTERNAL ORGANISATION CHARTS
To British Broadcasting Corporation by Laurie Stansbury 16 June 2009
Staff salaries in excess of £142,000
To British Broadcasting Corporation by m sykes 8 July 2010
Disclosure resulting from FS50133140
To British Broadcasting Corporation by Ganesh Sittampalam 6 February 2009
TV licensing evasion by social grade
To British Broadcasting Corporation by Ganesh Sittampalam 26 February 2011
tv licensing contracts
To British Broadcasting Corporation by Ganesh Sittampalam 11 May 2009
Contact information and org charts
To British Broadcasting Corporation by Mark 26 February 2009
How much did it cost to fly the contestants to Argentina for 'Total Wipeout'
To British Broadcasting Corporation by Paul Swift 10 February 2009
How Much Does The BBC Spend On Internet Marketing?
To British Broadcasting Corporation by Mr M Meaney 2 September 2010
breakdown of "Marketing, press and publicity" spend
Ganesh Sittampalam made this Freedom of Information request to British Broadcasting Corporation
The request was partially successful.
From: Ganesh Sittampalam
25 May 2008
Dear Sir or Madam,
Please provide any available breakdowns of the "Marketing, press
and publicity £45.4m" figure from your 2006/7 annual accounts.
Any such information is not held for the purposes of creating the
BBC's output, but rather for advertising that output, and therefore
I believe that it is held for a purpose "other than those of
journalism, art or literature" and therefore falls under the FoI
act. If you disagree with this, please could you provide a full
explanation of why you disagree?
Yours faithfully,
Ganesh Sittampalam
From: FOI Enquiries
British Broadcasting Corporation
27 May 2008
Dear Mr Sittampalam,
Thank you for your request for information under the Freedom of
Information Act 2000, about BBC expenditure on marketing, press and
publicity for 2006/7, which was received on 25 May 2008. We shall deal
with your request as promptly as possible and, at the latest, within 20
working days. If you have any queries about your request please contact
us at the address below.
The reference number for your request is RFI20080551.
Kind regards.
The Information Policy and Compliance Team
BBC Freedom of Information
Room 2252, BBC White City
201 Wood Lane
London W12 7TS, UK
Website: www.bbc.co.uk/foi
Email: [BBC request email]
Tel: 020 8008 2883
Fax: 020 8008 2398
show quoted sections
From: FOI Enquiries
British Broadcasting Corporation
2 June 2008
Dear Mr Sittampalam
Please find attached the response to your request for information,
reference RFI20080551
<<RFI20080551 - final response.pdf>>
Yours sincerely
Rachel Hallett
BBC Information Policy and Compliance
Room 2252, White City
201 Wood Lane
London W12 7TS, UK
Website: [1]www.bbc.co.uk/foi
Email: [2]mailto:[BBC request email]
Tel: 020 8008 2883
Fax: 020 8008 2398
[3]http://www.bbc.co.uk
This e-mail (and any attachments) is confidential and may contain personal
views which are not the views of the BBC unless specifically stated.
If you have received it in error, please delete it from your system.
Do not use, copy or disclose the information in any way nor act in
reliance on it and notify the sender immediately.
Please note that the BBC monitors e-mails sent or received.
Further communication will signify your consent to this.
References
Visible links
1. file://www.bbc.co.uk/foi
2. mailto:[BBC request email]
3. http://www.bbc.co.uk/
From: Ganesh Sittampalam
2 June 2008
Dear FOI Enquiries,
Have you appealed the decision notice from the Information
Commissioner regarding the costs of production of programmes to the
Information Tribunal? If not, what justification do you have for
not applying that precedent to this request?
Yours sincerely,
Ganesh Sittampalam
From: Ganesh Sittampalam
9 June 2008
Dear Sir or Madam,
I have now reviewed all the ICO's decision notices on the BBC's
attempts to apply the schedule 1 exemption. I note that he has
consistently found that information only peripherally associated
with programme-making is not covered by this exemption, and it
therefore seems very likely to me that he will find the same thing
in this case. The dominant purpose of keeping breakdowns of your
marketing expenditure is surely to ensure oversight and ensure
value for money, rather than being core to the creative process
involved in programme-making: you will of course be aware that the
ICO has found that even the costs of making programmes themselves
are not exempt under this schedule, even if other exemptions do
apply.
I note that there have been many similar findings in decision
notices and only one of these has been appealed to the Information
Tribunal by you, according to the list of decision notices on the
ICO's website and the list at
http://www.informationtribunal.gov.uk/Do....
This suggests that even if you do "reserve your position on the
matter", you have not taken the necessary legal steps to overturn
these decisions.
If the schedule 1 exemption is indeed found not to apply, you will
have been in breach of the FOI act by not providing an immediate
internal review of your alternative claims of exemption under
section 43(2). With regard to those claims, you are free to redact
details of individual payments, as I agree that those would be
exempt as it could compromise your dealings with your suppliers;
what I do want to see are the totals under whatever headings you
normally classify this expenditure. I see no reason why knowledge
of the total amounts the BBC spends in specific areas would impair
your negotiation position.
Referring to the part of your response where you discuss the public
interest test, I notice that both considerations in "favour of
disclosure" are actually hedged with riders that would more
properly belong "on the other hand". It seems to me that you have
taken a biased approach to considering this test.
I also do not agree with your statement that "in order for the
information to be of value to the public, it would be necessary to
have access to information about the costs of other broadcasts who
commission similar content". Of course, it would be possible to
have access to that information about Channel 4, which would
provide at least one point of comparison; secondly, I believe that
it would be valuable in its own right as there is public interest
in debating not only whether the level of expenditure is "normal"
for the industry, but whether the expenditure should be made at
all. For advertising-funded broadcasters, marketing may help to
increase audiences which have a direct impact on revenues; the same
is not true of the BBC.
I therefore request that you do the following:
(a) Either abandon your insistence on the schedule 1 exemption, or
provide a proper explanation of why the ICO's previous decisions do
not apply equally in this case.
(b) In either case, provide an immediate internal review of your
claim of section 43(2) exemption, taking into account the arguments
above. That way I will be able to combine any necessary appeals on
the schedule 1 exemption and this one, resulting in a more
efficient use of the ICO's time, and the faster resolution of this
case. In view of the strong evidence against your schedule 1
stance, it seems to me that a refusal to do this would be evidence
that you are acting in bad faith, trying to spin the process out as
long as possible rather than actually comply with your FOI
obligations.
Yours sincerely,
Ganesh Sittampalam
From: FOI Enquiries
British Broadcasting Corporation
25 June 2008
Dear Mr Sittampalam
Please find attached a letter in response to your emails of 2nd and 9th
June.
<<RFI20080551 - follow-up response.pdf>>
Yours sincerely
Rachel Hallett
BBC Information Policy and Compliance
Room 2252, White City
201 Wood Lane
London W12 7TS, UK
Website: [1]www.bbc.co.uk/foi
Email: [2]mailto:[BBC request email]
Tel: 020 8008 2883
Fax: 020 8008 2398
[3]http://www.bbc.co.uk
This e-mail (and any attachments) is confidential and may contain personal
views which are not the views of the BBC unless specifically stated.
If you have received it in error, please delete it from your system.
Do not use, copy or disclose the information in any way nor act in
reliance on it and notify the sender immediately.
Please note that the BBC monitors e-mails sent or received.
Further communication will signify your consent to this.
References
Visible links
1. file://www.bbc.co.uk/foi
2. mailto:[BBC request email]
3. http://www.bbc.co.uk/
From: Ganesh Sittampalam
7 July 2008
Dear FOI Enquiries,
Thank you. I have now appealed this to the Information
Commissioner.
Yours sincerely,
Ganesh Sittampalam
Ganesh Sittampalam left an annotation (19 January 2010)
The ICO has now issued a decision notice upholding the BBC's position, on the basis of the High Court decision which substantially broadened the scope of the derogation. I intend to appeal to the Information Tribunal as I don't believe the ICO has got this right and the DN doesn't even address the arguments I made to them explaining why I think this information is not covered even under the new definition of the derogation.
Things to do with this request
- Add an annotation (to help the requester or others)
- Download a zip file of all correspondence
Make and explore Freedom of Information requests






Ganesh Sittampalam left an annotation (26 November 2008)
Link to this