Costs of FOI and PR

The request was successful.

Heather Brooke

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

Brown Rod \(COMMS\),

Dear Ms Brooke
Thank you for your request for information asking for details from the
last threes years of the following;
1. The number of staff working in marketing, external communications and
press offices?
2. The number of dedicated Freedom of Information officers?
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?
Your request was received on 28 July 2009 and is being dealt with under
the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

If you have any queries about this email, please contact me. Please
remember to quote the reference number above in any future communications.

Yours sincerely

Rod Brown

Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
Press Office, 1 Victoria Street, London SW1H 0ET

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Communications via the GSi may be automatically logged, monitored and/or
recorded for legal purposes.

Brown Rod \(COMMS\),

1 Attachment

Dear Ms Brooke

Please see the attached letter regarding your information request.

Rod Brown

Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
Press Office, 1 Victoria Street, London SW1H 0ET

<<09-1093 Brooke.doc>>

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Communications via the GSi may be automatically logged, monitored and/or
recorded for legal purposes.

Dear Mr Brown,
Your colleague asked me to clarify a few points in my FOI request.

Question 5:
do you want to know the total departmental spend on marketing activities, external communications and press office work or just the costs of running the sections for marketing, external communications and the press office?

If you have two figures for this then I am happy to accept both. I know that some departments contract out press and marketing services so I am wary of restricting myself to just the costs of only in-house sections. Perhaps if you could explain how these services are provided within the department I may better be able to restrict my query.

Question 6
do you want to know the total amount spent on administering FOI requests across the whole Department or just the costs of running the section containing dedicated Freedom of Information staff?

Again I am happy to accept both sets of figures but if I were to choose one it would be just the costs of running the section containing dedicated FOI staff.

Question 7
do you mean a newsletter sent to external contacts or a newsletter produced for internal staff?

A newsletter sent to external contacts.

I hope that clarifies matters.

Yours sincerely,

Heather Brooke

Aranha Mervyn (BIS),

1 Attachment

  • Attachment

    FOI 09 1093 Heather Brooke cost of marketing Press Office FOI staff reply.DOC.doc

    77K Download View as HTML

<<FOI 09 1093 Heather Brooke cost of marketing Press Office FOI staff -
reply.DOC>>

Dear Ms Brooke,

Re: FOI 09 1093 Heather Brooke cost of marketing Press Office FOI staff

Please see attached reply from George O'Neill's in reference to your
request of 16 July 2009 under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 for
information as requested.

Best wishes,

Mervyn Aranha
Department for Business, Innovation & Skills

748, 1 Victoria Street,
London, SW1H 0ET
T: 020 7215 5959
M: 07795 427 054

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Communications via the GSi may be automatically logged, monitored and/or
recorded for legal purposes.

Dear Mervyn,
Thank you for answering my request. Could you confirm that the reply to question 6 includes any related legal costs (eg internal and external lawyers hired to provide advice or to appeal against requests)?

Yours sincerely,

Heather Brooke

Aranha Mervyn \(BIS\),

Hi Heather,

Will get back to you shortly on legal costs.

Best wishes,

Mervyn Aranha
Department for Business, Innovation & Skills

748, 1 Victoria Street,
London, SW1H 0ET
T: 020 7215 5959
M: 07795 427 054

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Press Office FOI's,

Dear Ms Brooke

I must apologise for the time it has taken to respond to your question
below.

Our reply to question 6 does not include any related legal costs. We
interpreted the question as referring to just the costs of running the
section containing dedicated FOI staff. This does not include any costs
associated with staff elsewhere in the Department who answer FOI
requests.

If you have a queries please contact me, please remember to use the
reference number 09/1385 in any future communications.

Yours sincerely
Rod Brown

Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
Press Office, 1 Victoria Street, London SW1H 0ET

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Heather Brooke left an annotation ()

What I've noticed from this series of requests is that the departments routinely:

- underestimate marketing/press office costs by excluding (often without telling me) various campaigns. This was particularly notable with the department of health.

- they have also subjectively chosen to exclude the legal costs of defending what is very often the indefensible (eg the legal costs of appealing against the public's attempt to get official information into the public domain via the freeodm of information act). This is what is clear from the DECC response.