Dear Department of Finance (Northern Ireland),

I respectfully request the disclosure of the following requested information under the Freedom of Information Act.

The following questions all refer to the Department for Communities (DFC), to also include all staff within all DFC sub-departments, i.e. the Employment & Support Allowance (ESA), Personal Independence Payments (PIP) and Medical Support Services (MSS) Departments, thank you.

1. Please provide the total number of employees presently employed within all the DFC Departments, please further break this down by the number of employees within each individual department (ESA / PIP / MSS etc.).
2. Please provide the gross combined annual salaries within all DFC, ESA, PIP & Medical Support Services employees, please further break this down into each individual Department.
3. Please provide a break-down of the gross annual salary pay scales for all DFC, ESA, PIP, MSS etc. employees from C.E.O. level down to the basic administrative level.
4. Please supply the annual costs to retain all Contractors / Agency staff employed within the various DFC Departments.

I look forward to receiving your response at your earliest possible convenience.
Yours faithfully,

K. BARNES

DoF FOI, Department of Finance (Northern Ireland)

Good morning

The Department of Finance acknowledges receipt of your request for
information – your reference number is DOF/2024-0376. In line with FOI/EIR
legislation, the department has up to 20 working days to respond to your
request and therefore you should expect a response no later than
02/10/2024.

The department’s [1]Right to Know leaflet provides an outline of your
rights under the Freedom of Information Act and Environmental Information
Regulations, and explains how your request will be dealt with.  You can
also read the department’s [2]Information Access Requests Privacy Notice.

Please note, information released by the Department of Finance in response
to Freedom of Information and Environmental Information Regulations
requests is routinely published on the department’s [3]FOI/EIR Disclosure
Log.

Regards

FOI/EIR Team

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Dear DoF FOI,

Thank you for acknowledging receipt of my FOI request and providing me with an update.

Yours sincerely,

K. BARNES

DoF FOI, Department of Finance (Northern Ireland)

1 Attachment

Good afternoon

Please see attached request for clarification in relation to your recent
request for information.

Regards

FOI/EIR Team

Ref: DOF/2024-0376

Dear DoF FOI,

Thank you for your email requesting clarification. You state and request the following;

........."In relation to Q4, please be advised, DoF do not hold costs in relation to all
Contractors / Agency staff employed within the various DFC Departments.

DoF only hold expenditure data in relation to Agency workers recruited under
the agency worker framework within DfC, would this information suffice?"

I confirm the information you hold, as stated above, will suffice, thank you.

Yours sincerely,

K. BARNES

DoF FOI, Department of Finance (Northern Ireland)

Good morning

Thank you for providing clarification for request DOF/2024-0376. You
should expect to receive your response no later than 14/10/2024.

ICO guidance states: Section 10(6) says that the date of receipt will be
the day on which you receive the request or ‘if later, the day on which
you receive the information referred to in section 1(3)’.  This
effectively means that where you need more details to identify and locate
the requested information and you have contacted the requester for further
clarification, the date of receipt will be the day you receive the
information you need to comply with the request. The 20-working-day clock
will start the day after you receive the necessary clarification.

Further information can be found on the ICO website:
[1]https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/foi...

Regards

FOI/EIR Team

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DoF FOI, Department of Finance (Northern Ireland)

1 Attachment

Good afternoon,

Please see attached response to your recent request for information.

FOI/EIR Unit

[DoF (NI) request email]

Dear DoF FOI,

Thank you for taking the time to supply me with my requested information, it is greatly appreciated.

Yours sincerely,

K. BARNES