fees office staff

Dear M Sykes,

Thank you for your email dated 1 June 2009 which was received today.

Accordingly we will endeavour to provide a response by 29 June 2009

Mandy Kelly
Freedom of Information Assistant

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Dear M Sykes,

Your request was received today, 1 June 2009, therefore the deadline for
a response is twenty working days time on 29 June 2009. As we have not
yet provided a response, there is nothing to review.

Mandy Kelly
Freedom of Information Assistant

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Dear M Sykes

Thank you for your email dated 1 June which is shown below. Your
questions are addressed as follows:

1. Number employed
As at 1 June 2009, there were 76.8 (full-time equivalents) staff
working in Operations Directorate.

2. Who appoints them?
All House staff are appointed by the House of Commons Commission through
a process of fair and open competition.

In 2001 the Fees Office ceased to exist to be a separate office within
the Department of Finance and Administration (now known as the
Department of Resources). It became the Operations Directorate with
responsibility for:

Payment of salary to Members, their staff and House staff

Payment of parliamentary allowances

Pensions payable to Members , their staff and staff of the House
(Pensions for Members are managed on behalf of the Pension Trustees, not
the House of Commons)

Guidance to Members on personnel issues

Training for Members' staff

Payment of House suppliers of goods and services

3. To whom are they answerable?
The House of Commons Commission is responsible for the overall
administration of the House of Commons.

The Department of Resources administers the Parliamentary allowances
under the authority of the Members Estimate Committee.

4.Individual salaries and benefits in kind?

Your request for information about individual staff salaries is refused.
While this information is held by the House of Commons, it is the
House's view that disclosing the details of payments of staff would be
a breach of the data protection principles in the Data Protection Act
1998 (DPA). The information is therefore exempt from the obligation
imposed by section 1(1)(b) of the FOI Act (the obligation to provide
information) by virtue of section 40(2) of the same Act (the exemption
for personal information). This is an absolute exemption and the public
interest test does not apply.
However, the attached tables give salary information by pay band,
showing the minimum and maximum rates.

Please refer to sections 5.16 to 5.29 of the current House of Commons
Staff Handbook, which is linked below, for information relating to
benefits in kind.

http://www.parliament.uk/documents/uploa...

You may, if dissatisfied with the treatment of your request, ask the
House of Commons to conduct an internal review of this decision.
Requests for internal review should be addressed to: Freedom of
Information Officer, Department of Resources, House of Commons London
SW1 OAA or [House of Commons request email]. Please ensure that you specify the
nature of your complaint and any arguments or points that you wish to
make.

If you remain dissatisfied, you may appeal to the Information
Commissioner at Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF.

Yours sincerely,

Bob Castle
Head of Information Rights and Information Security
House of Commons

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