Costs of FOI, PR and press offices

Dear Sir or Madam,

Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 I seek the following
information about the Department's staffing and funding for
publicity and communications. I would like this information broken
down annually for the past three years up to the time this request
is answered. The years may be financial or calendar, whichever is
convenient, but please keep them consistent.

Specifically, I need:

1. The number of staff (full-time equivalent) working in marketing,
external communications and press offices.

2. The number of dedicated Freedom of Information officers
(full-time equivalent).

3. Total staffing cost of marketing, external communications and
press officers.

4. Total staffing cost of dedicated Freedom of Information staff.

5. Total spending on marketing, external communications and press
offices.

6. Total spending on Freedom of Information.

7. If the department produces a newsletter then the name of this
publication and all associated costs.

Some parts of this request may be easier to answer than others, and
should this prove to be the case I would ask that you release
available data as soon as possible rather than hold up the entire
request.

I would prefer to receive this information electronically. If the
decision is made to withhold some of this data using exemptions in
Act, please inform me of that fact and cite the exemptions used.

If you need any clarification then please contact me at the number
above or via email. Under your section 16 duty to provide advice
and assistance I would expect you to contact me if you find this
request unmanageable in any way.

I would be grateful if you could confirm in writing that you have
received this request, and I look forward to hearing from you in
the near future.

Regards, Heather Brooke

Dear Ivan Pocock,
You asked me to clarify points 2,4 6 and if the previous FOI
response to another respondent would be acceptable.

Having read the previous FOI response I do not find that it answers
my questions. I am not asking how many people might have some
contact with an FOI request but for the number of FTE FOI staff.
I'm sure many people do lots of things in the department and yet
they have dedicated titles and jobs. I wish to know the number of
dedicated FOI staff.

You asked if I could clarify quesiton 4 stating: "what you mean by
“total staffing costs”. We do not hold detailed staffing cost
figures which include salaries, pension costs, national insurance
costs but we should be able to provide you with the salary scales
for any grades which we identify when researching question 2 (see
Annex B to the FOI response in the link above). Would this be
acceptable to you?"

Any company account or budget has a separate line item for staffing
costs. I would be very suprised to find that the FOI section of the
department does not have the same. If not, how on earth can it know
how much money it requires for the coming financial year? If you
honestly mean to say the Department has no idea of its staffing
expenditure on FOI then I suppose I could accept the number of FTE
FOI officers and their salary grades but be aware that in any
calculations I do I will take the upper limit of such salary
scales.

In relation to question 6 you ask if I can clarify what I mean by
“total spending on Freedom of Information”. Only you can know this
as I don't work in the department but I would imagine it might
include all staffing costs (as above) along with legal costs, IT,
correspondence, publications, intranet, etc.

I hope this clarifies matters.

Yours sincerely,

Heather Brooke

Dear Ivan Pocock,

Would it be possible to re-send this reply in word document format
as I cannot paste it into my files in the current format which is a
scanned image.

Yours sincerely,

Heather Brooke