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Details of the Voluntary Exit Schme

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Dear Department of Finance and Personnel (Northern Ireland),

Please provide me with:

1. The number of staff who applied for the voluntary exit scheme in your department in each substantive grade by gender?

2. How many staff at this point in time have received an offer of voluntary exit in your department in each substantive grade by gender?

3. The number of staff who at this point in time received an offer of voluntary exit in each substantive grade:
Age 60 and over
Age 59
Age 58
Age 57
Age 56
Age 55
Age 50 – 54
Age under 50?

I am content for this request to be passed to all other NICS
Departments.

Yours faithfully,

Jeff Glenhomes

Dear Department of Finance and Personnel (Northern Ireland),

Further to my request of 30 September 2015 I wish to clarify that I want separate details of the position in each Department.

If DFP cannot provide this data then I am content for you to pass it to all other NICS Departments.

Yours faithfully,

Jeff Glenhomes

Bowman, Sharon,

1 Attachment

Mr Glenhomes

Please see attached letter.

Regards

Sharon Bowman

Bowman, Sharon,

1 Attachment

Mr Glenhomes

Please find attached response to your FOI request.

Regards

Sharon Bowman

Dear Department of Finance and Personnel (Northern Ireland),

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Department of Finance and Personnel (Northern Ireland)'s handling of my FOI request 'Details of the Voluntary Exit Scheme'.

1. I have been misinformed, as I was advised that the information which I requested relating to the number of staff who applied is available on the Voluntary Exit webpage. I asked for information by substantive grade. The information which has been published is clearly by analogous grade. I believe that the information requested is readily available, as evidenced by the publication of information by analogous grade, and therefore there are no difficulties in extracting the information. There is therefore no defensible or legitimate reason not to provide it, and it is in the public interest to provide it now. Indeed to publish details of analogous grade was perverse given that some Departments have applied quotas by substantive grade. The information already released is therefore of no real value.

2. I do not consider it is reasonable or sensible to wait before publishing the information I have requested and the reasons given ‘Against Disclosure’ are weak i.e. to withhold this information is unfair and is not acting with transparency and openness and there is a public benefit to providing this information as the scheme is being financed by tax-payers money. There is, at times, legitimate reason for maintaining secrecy or withholding information, however, there is no reason why this particular information cannot be released now other than what I suspect is an attempt to avoid having to answer difficult or awkward questions before the scheme closes.

3. DFP did not advise in the response to my request that the information was withheld within the terms of Section 12 (cost limit). Therefore the comments in relation to “duplication of effort and impact on departmental resources” are disingenuous and inappropriate as cost cannot be used to justify exemption under Section 22 which is solely to do with exemption for information intended for future publication.

4. As I have specifically requested information “at this point in time” the reference to information potentially changing at a later date is therefore irrelevant and is not a justifiable reason to withhold information now. A simple caveat emphasising that the information may be subject to change would be sufficient to alleviate any concerns that DFP may have about this, even if in my view it is unnecessary given the unambiguous wording of my request.

5. It would be impossible for any individual to assess their likelihood of being selected for early exit by use of the information I have requested as has been alleged. However, in order to be fair to all concerned this information should be released at the earliest possible opportunity and indeed should already have been made available. The information requested is purely statistical and does not require any internal or limited consideration prior to being released as none of this information if disclosed has the potential to cause harm. I believe that the only reason to maintain secrecy and withhold this information may be that to do so would reveal wide discrepancies between departments and DFP wish to hide this until after the scheme has closed. The wider public interest is clearly best served by fairness, openness and transparency, however, DFP appear to consider that it is in their own interest to delay potentially embarrassing information until the scheme has closed. It is in the greater interest of the public to pro-actively bring forward immediate publication of the information requested as the public interest outweighs the interests of the department in this case.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/d...

Yours faithfully,

Jeff Glenhomes

Lynn, Jenny,

1 Attachment

  • Attachment

    DFP IR 2015 0042 Internal Review Acknowledgement Letter for DFP 2015 0715.DOCX.docx

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Dear Mr Glenhomes

Please see attached acknowledgement letter for your recent request for internal review.

Kind regards
Jenny

Jenny Lynn
Information Management Unit
Department of Finance and Personnel (DFP)

Lynn, Jenny,

1 Attachment

  • Attachment

    DFP IR 2015 0042 Internal Review Response Letter for DFP 2015 0715.DOCX.docx

    320K Download View as HTML

Dear Mr Glenhomes

Please see attached internal review response letter for DFP/2015-0715.

Kind regards
Jenny

Jenny Lynn
Information Management Unit
Department of Finance and Personnel (DFP)

Bowman, Sharon,

1 Attachment

Mr Glenhomes

Please see attached Letter.

Regards

Sharon Bowman

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