By Email
4th February 2019
Dear Mr Chlymer
I am responding to you on behalf of the National Citizen Service Trust ("NCS"), in relation to your email
dated 8th J
anuary 2
019. I n y
our e
mail y
ou a
sked t he N
CS t o c
arry o
ut a
n i nternal r
eview o
f i ts r
esponse t o
your request made under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 ("FOIA") on 7th December 2018 ("the
Response"), as fol ows:
"Please provide the total number of staff with gross annual salaries equal to o
r a
bove £
70,000 s
eparated
by department and the average (mean) of salaries equal to or above this value, again separated by
department. Can I also have the same for salaries equal to or over £90,000.00 gross" ("the Request")”
As I had no involvement in the handling of your request or the preparation of the Response, I was
appointed to carry out an internal review, considering i) y
our r
equest a
nd w
hether t he N
CS w
as c
orrect t o
withhold the information you requested; and i ) the handling of your request and the response provided.
Internal Review
I can c
onfirm t hat w
e h
old t he i nformation y
ou h
ave r
equested. U
pon t he c
arrying o
ut o
f a
n i nternal r
eview,
I have determined that the Response was correct in withholding the information on the basis of the
exemption(s) set out in the Response (and explained below for ease of reference).
Exempt Information
As we advised in our Response, the information requested is exempt under section 40(2) FOIA as it
contains personal data (as defined under the Data Protection Act 2018 ("DPA") and the General Data
Protection Regulation 2016 ("GDPR")), of third p
arties. S
ection 4
0(2) F
OIA s
tates t hat t hird p
arty p
ersonal
data should not be disclosed to a requester if such disclosure would be in breach of the data protection
principles under the DPA.
The personal data was provided to the NCS on the understanding that such information would be kept
confidential and not disclosed to the world at large. The individuals' roles are neither public facing, nor
particularly senior, they do not have responsibility f or m
aking d
ecisions o
n h
ow p
ublic m
oney i s s
pent a
nd
they would not expect their involvement in this matter to be known publicly. As such, disclosure of this
information would be in breach of the first data protection principle under section 34(1) DPA and article
5(1) GDPR.
Handling of your Request and the Response
I have reviewed the handling of your Request by the NCS and have found that this was dealt with
appropriately. A thorough investigation was carried out on receipt of your Request to identify the
information; the NCS team involved took into account the NCS' duty as a public a
uthority t o b
e o
pen a
nd
transparent, balancing this with the various arguments for withholding the information on the basis of t he
exemption(s). The Response explained the exemption(s) that applied and the detailed reasons for
withholding the information and this was communicated to you clearly and within appropriate time frames.
Change of circumstances
Although we applied the exemption(s) in the correct way and handled your Request appropriately, we
have taken this opportunity to consider whether certain other information could have been disclosed to
you. We are pleased to confirm that we can signpost you to more detailed information that is already
available.
Our annual report is available here:
https://www.ncsyes.co.uk/sites/default/files/2018-11/Annual%20Report%202017%20-%202018.pdf On page 47 of the report you wil find a more detailed breakdown o
f s
alaries g
reater t han £
60000 b
roken
down into £5000 bands. This is additional to t he d
etail a
bout t he s
alaries o
f t he s
enior l eadership t eam o
n
page 28. We are committed to publishing this level of detail in our annual report and this is common
practice for organisations like NCS.
Freedom of Information complaints procedure
The NCS is committed to making information available under the FOIA and to e
nsuring t hat t he s
ervice i t
provides for those wishing to gain access to information is simple, efficient and effective.
If you feel the service you have received does not meet these aims o
r y
our e
xpectations, t he n
ext s
tep i s
for you to refer your complaint to:
The Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
www.ico.org.uk
Yours sincerely
Simon Woods
Chief Information Officer
2