FCO staff - additional remuneration for linguistic competences
Dear Foreign and Commonwealth Office,
on 6 February 2012, the then Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State Henry Bellingham MP responded to Commons' Written Question 93572 of Stephen Barclay MP on "Diplomatic Service: Languages" (HC Deb, 6 February 2012, c49W).
In his answer, Mr Bellingham provided a table which listed the FCO staff (by country, post or office) in receipt of additional remuneration as a result of holding (a) CEFR level C2 (FCO Extensive), (b) CEFR level CI (FCO Operational) and (c) CEFR Level A2 (FCO Confidence) language qualifications.
I'd be most grateful if you could send me an updated version of that table. Ideally, I would like to receive data per 1 January 2017 (or later if fully uptodate data can be easily extracted from your systems), alternatively please provide me with the most recent data available.
I will leave it to you whether to split the table by country, by FCO post or similarly, but I'd be grateful if the level of detail could approximately match (or exceed) the level of detail in the table provided on 6 February 2012.
Yours faithfully,
John Roberts
Dear John Roberts,
Thank you for your FOI request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. It has been assigned a unique reference number (above) and has been passed to the relevant section within the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to deal with. They will be in touch with you should your request need clarification.
We received your request on 25 January 2017 and will aim to respond within 20 working days, following date of receipt.
Yours sincerely
FOI and DPA Team
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
Dear John Roberts
Please find attached a letter extending the deadline for which we aim to
respond to your Freedom of Information request. This is because a
qualified exemption applies to the information and therefore the public
interest test is engaged.
Kind regards
HRD Operations Team
Directorate Operations Team | Human Resources Directorate | Foreign and
Commonwealth Office | London SW1A 2AH
Dear Sir or Madam,
thank you for your message. I note that you are extending the time to respond in order to conduct a Public Interest Test.
This said, I am somewhat perplexed as to how information that has already been published (in its then form) in February 2012 in a parliamentary written answer could now fall under an exemption for which a public interest test has to be conducted, even more so as you cite Section 24 - National Security.
You will note from my request that I have asked solely for an updated version of the same data, not any further details. It appears strange that aggregated data which could be published in 2012 has now suddenly become a matter of national security. Please do clarify this for me in the meantime.
Yours faithfully,
John Roberts
Dear John Roberts
Please find attached a letter extending the deadline for which we aim to
respond to your Freedom of Information request (FOI 0094-17).
This is because a qualified exemption applies and consideration is still
on-going. Therefore the public interest test is still engaged.
Kind regards
HRD Operations Team
Directorate Operations Team | Human Resources Directorate | Foreign and
Commonwealth Office | London SW1A 2AH
From: PRD - HR (Sensitive)
Sent: 22 February 2017 11:40
To: [FOI #384146 email]
Subject: Freedom of Information request - FOI 0094-17 Reply to John
Roberts
Dear John Roberts
Please find attached a letter extending the deadline for which we aim to
respond to your Freedom of Information request. This is because a
qualified exemption applies to the information and therefore the public
interest test is engaged.
Kind regards
HRD Operations Team
Directorate Operations Team | Human Resources Directorate | Foreign and
Commonwealth Office | London SW1A 2AH
Dear Foreign and Commonwealth Office,
thank you for your message with another extension notification.
I am afraid you did not at all address the points raised in my reply of 22 February which was to query why it would take so long to consider a request for an update of figures that had been previously, and in exactly the same form, published in a parliamentary written answer. As stated there, it is very difficult for me to understand why information that had been previously published in response to a parliamentary question could now suddenly engage "National Security" considerations.
I would be grateful if you could advise why your views on this have changed since the publication of these previous figures by the end of the month.
Yours faithfully,
John Roberts
Dear John Roberts
Please find attached a response to your Freedom of Information request to
the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
Kind regards
HRD Operations Team
Knowledge Management Officer | Directorate Operations Team | Human
Resources Directorate | Foreign and Commonwealth Office | London SW1A 2AH
From: PRD - HR (Sensitive)
Sent: 22 March 2017 14:28
To: [FOI #384146 email]
Subject: RE: Freedom of Information request - FOI 0094-17 Reply to John
Roberts
Dear John Roberts
Please find attached a letter extending the deadline for which we aim to
respond to your Freedom of Information request (FOI 0094-17).
This is because a qualified exemption applies and consideration is still
on-going. Therefore the public interest test is still engaged.
Kind regards
HRD Operations Team
Directorate Operations Team | Human Resources Directorate | Foreign and
Commonwealth Office | London SW1A 2AH
From: PRD - HR (Sensitive)
Sent: 22 February 2017 11:40
To: [1][FOI #384146 email]
Subject: Freedom of Information request - FOI 0094-17 Reply to John
Roberts
Dear John Roberts
Please find attached a letter extending the deadline for which we aim to
respond to your Freedom of Information request. This is because a
qualified exemption applies to the information and therefore the public
interest test is engaged.
Kind regards
HRD Operations Team
Directorate Operations Team | Human Resources Directorate | Foreign and
Commonwealth Office | London SW1A 2AH
Dear Foreign and Commonwealth Office,
thank you very much for your response of today, which answers my request in full.
I am grateful for your decision to release the information after all, given the previous hints (through Public Interest Test letters) at invoking the Section 24 National Security exemption which I had been a bit baffled by. I was glad to see that you did not maintain this exemption in your final response.
Yours faithfully,
John Roberts
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