FOI Salaries

Hi BBC

I'm trying to do some benchmarking and I was hoping you could help.

Could you tell me:

(1) How many people work in your FOI team (or team responsible for dealing with FOI requests)?
(2) What is the grade/salary band of the most senior person who writes FOI responses? (i.e. what grade are they and what salary range covers this grade)
(3) What is the grade/salary band of the most senior person who writes internal review responses?
(4) What is the grade/salary band of the most senior person who writes submissions for the ICO?
(5) What is the grade/salary band of the manager of the FOI team?
(6) In 2023, 2022 and 2021 respectively how many FOI and EIR requests did you deal with?

Thanks in advance

Jon Howard

Dear ScotRail Trains Limited,

Apologies, didn't mean to call you the BBC, I do know you're different organisations!

Yours faithfully,

Jon Howard

Dear ScotRail Trains Limited,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of ScotRail Trains Limited's handling of my FOI request 'FOI Salaries'.

To be honest, I think you've made a bit of a mistake. The information I'm looking for isn't personal data, not even the most extreme interpretation of UK GDPR would categorise the salary would categorise the salary band associated with a role as an individual's personal data. Even if it did constitute data relating to an individual, I'm not convinced the individuals in question would be readily identifiable, meaning that the data isn't personal data. You've certainly provided no evidence to show how they could be identified. Even presuming for a moment that the information is the personal data of your staff, and to be clear, I really don't think it is, there's a legitimate interest under article 6(1)(F) of UK GDPR for processing the data, ie demonstrating how public money is spent; there's no other means of my accessing the information so disclosure passes the necessity test; and the infringement on the individuals' rights is so minor that disclosure also passes the balancing test. With that in mind, I'd ask you to reconsider your decision.

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

Yours faithfully,

Jon Howard

Let's see what the ICO thinks.

Jon Howard