Oxford City Council Employees Furloughed Earning Greater than 30K

The request was partially successful.

Dear Oxford City Council,

Please supply answers to the following questions:

1. How many Oxford City Council employees earning more than 30K per year have been furloughed each month since March 2020. For each employee please list job title and furlough money received from the Government and topped up by Oxford City Council.

2. How many Oxford Direct Services employees earning more than 30K per year have been furloughed each month since March 2020. For each employee please list job title and furlough money received from the Government and topped up by Oxford City Council.

Yours faithfully,

Kevin Spencer

freedomofinformation, Oxford City Council

Dear Mr Spencer,

Oxford City Council – Reference: 9946

Thank you for your email below. Your request was received on 8th March 2021 and you will be sent a response within 20 working days (of receipt) in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000/ Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (EIR), subject to the information not being exempt or containing reference to a third party.

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) recognises the unprecedented challenges all are facing during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

In particular they understand that resources, whether they are finances or people, may be diverted away from usual compliance or information rights work. Whilst the ICO can’t extend statutory timescales, they will not be penalising public authorities for prioritising other areas or adapting their usual approach during this extraordinary period.

Therefore while the Council will make every effort to comply with the Statutory Requirements you may experience understandable delays when making information rights requests during the pandemic.

Yours sincerely

Kathryn Winfield
Information Governance Requests Officer

Kathryn Winfield | Information Governance Requests Officer | Oxford City Council | Law and Governance | St. Aldate's Chambers | Oxford | OX1 1DS | Email: [email address] | T: 01865 252007
My working days are Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays

Stop the virus from spreading. Keep Oxford safe.
Follow the guidance: Clean hands. Wear a face mask. Keep your distance. Get tested if you have symptoms.

show quoted sections

freedomofinformation, Oxford City Council

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Spencer,
 
Oxford City Council – Reference: 9946
 
Further to the acknowledgement below, I can respond to your Freedom of
Information Act 2000 request received on  8^th March 2021 as follows:
 
1.How many Oxford City Council employees earning more than 30K per year
have been furloughed each month since March 2020.  For each employee
please list job title and furlough money received from the Government and
topped up by Oxford City Council.
 
The table below provides details of total furlough payments by month for
employees earning more than £30K per year.
 
We have not provided the job title as it would breach confidentiality as
the individual could be identifiable. Please see exemption below.
 
 

Month Number Claim Total Total Employer Top Up
Apr-20 34 21315.66 23279.83
May-20 38 48710.70 62309.16
Jun-20 25 55069.24 64485.31
Jul-20 7 10015.75 11128.04
Aug-20 4 6450.41 8495.72
Sep-20 1 2187.50 3597.10
Oct-20 1 1875.00 1875.00

 
2. How many Oxford Direct Services employees earning more than 30K per
year have been furloughed each month since March 2020.  For each employee
please list job title and furlough money received from the Government and
topped up by Oxford City Council.
 
Please see attached spreadsheet.
 
We have not provided the job title as it would breach confidentiality as
the individual could be identifiable. Please see exemption below.
 
No funding has been contributed to Oxford Direct Services from Oxford City
Council because Oxford Direct Services (ODS) is a teckal company and
whilst wholly owned by Oxford City Council they are independently run.
To break this down further would require a significant amount of resource
time. Therefore, I am of the opinion, however, that retrieving the
information you require would exceed 18.5 working hours so consider
Section 12 of the FOIA to applies in this instance.
 
 
Section 40
Under s.1(1)(a) FOIA I can confirm the Council does hold the job title
details. However, I consider this to be personal information as the
individual could be identifiable.The Council has not received consent from
the person concerned to disclose their details. To release this
information would contravene the data protection principles contained in
the Data Protection Act 2018.  Therefore, I  consider that Sections 40 (2)
of the FOIA is engaged.  
 
This email constitutes a Refusal Notice under section 17 of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 and exemptions under section  40 (2) of the FOIA is
applied.
 
40- Personal information
 
(1)Any information to which a request for information relates is exempt
information if it constitutes personal data of which the applicant is the
data subject.
(2)Any information to which a request for information relates is also
exempt information if—
(a)it constitutes personal data which does not fall within subsection (1),
and
(b)the first, second or third condition below is satisfied.
 
3A) The first condition is that the disclosure of the information to a
member of the public otherwise than under this Act—

 a. would contravene any of the data protection principles, or
 b. would do so if the exemptions in section 24(1) of the Data Protection
Act 2018 (manual unstructured data held by public authorities) were
disregarded.

3B)The second condition is that the disclosure of the information to a
member of the public otherwise than under this Act would contravene
Article 21 of the GDPR (general processing: right to object to
processing).]
4A)The third condition is that—
(a)on a request under Article 15(1) of the GDPR (general processing: right
of access by the data subject) for access to personal data, the
information would be withheld in reliance on provision made by or under
section 15, 16 or 26 of, or Schedule 2, 3 or 4 to, the Data Protection Act
2018, or
(b)on a request under section 45(1)(b) of that Act (law enforcement
processing: right of access by the data subject), the information would be
withheld in reliance on subsection (4) of that section.
(5A) The duty to confirm or deny does not arise in relation to information
which is (or if it
were held by the public authority would be) exempt information by virtue
of
subsection (1).
(5B) The duty to confirm or deny does not arise in relation to other
information if or to the
extent that any of the following applies—
(a) giving a member of the public the confirmation or denial that would
have to be
given to comply with section 1(1)(a)—
(i) would (apart from this Act) contravene any of the data protection
principles, or
(ii) would do so if the exemptions in section 24(1) of the Data Protection
Act 2018 (manual unstructured data held by public authorities) were
disregarded;
(b) giving a member of the public the confirmation or denial that would
have to be
given to comply with section 1(1)(a) would (apart from this Act)
contravene
Article 21 of the GDPR (general processing: right to object to
processing);
(c) on a request under Article 15(1) of the GDPR (general processing:
right of
access by the data subject) for confirmation of whether personal data is
being
processed, the information would be withheld in reliance on a provision
listed
in subsection (4A)(a);
(d) on a request under section 45(1)(a) of the Data Protection Act 2018
(law
enforcement processing: right of access by the data subject), the
information
would be withheld in reliance on subsection (4) of that section.
(7) In this section—
"the data protection principles" means the principles set out in—
(a) Article 5(1) of the GDPR, and
(b) section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018;
"data subject" has the same meaning as in the Data Protection Act 2018
(see
section 3 of that Act);
"the GDPR", "personal data", "processing" and references to a provision of
Chapter 2 of Part 2 of the Data Protection Act 2018have the same meaning
as in
Parts 5 to 7 of the Data Protection Act 2018 (see section 3(2), (4), (10),
(11) and
(14) of that Act).
(8) In determining for the purposes of this section whether the lawfulness
principle in
Article 5(1)(a) of the GDPR would be contravened by the disclosure of
information,
Article 6(1) of the GDPR (lawfulness) is to be read as if the second
sub-paragraph
(disapplying the legitimate interests gateway in relation to public
authorities) were
omitted.
 
If you disagree with any part of the response to your request, you are
entitled to ask the Council for an internal review of the decision(s)
made.  You may do this by writing to the Monitoring Officer, by either
email – [email address] – or by post to Monitoring Officer, Oxford
City Council, St Aldate’s Chambers, St Aldate’s, Oxford, OX1 1DS.  After
the result of the internal review, if you remain dissatisfied, you may ask
the Information Commissioner to intervene on your behalf.  You may do this
by writing to the Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe Lane,
Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF.
 
Yours sincerely
 
Kathryn Winfield
Information Governance Requests Officer
 
Kathryn Winfield | Information Governance Requests Officer | Oxford City
Council | Law and Governance | St. Aldate's Chambers | Oxford | OX1 1DS |
Email: [email address] | T: 01865 252007
My working days are Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays
 
Stop the virus from spreading. Keep Oxford safe.
Follow the guidance: Clean hands. Wear a face mask. Keep your distance.
Get tested if you have symptoms.
 
 
 

show quoted sections

Dear Oxford City Council,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Oxford City Council's handling of my FOI request 'Oxford City Council Employees Furloughed Earning Greater than 30K'.

The information is not presented in a clear and unambiguous format. It is difficult to determine from the way in which the data is presented if it refers to all Oxford City Council employees or those earning over 30K or Oxford City Council plus Oxford Direct Services?

A request was made for the funding of furloughed Oxford Direct Service employees in addition to the money received from the Government. The request was turned down for the reason: "To break this down further would require a significant amount of resource time". I do not believe that it would take a substantial amount of time to provide such data as It probably already exists in a spreadsheet. I would therefore ask for this request to be reconsidered.

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

Yours faithfully,

Kevin Spencer

GRIFFITHS Emma, Oxford City Council

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Spencer,

 

I apologise for the delay in writing to you. I have been asked by the
Council’s Monitoring Officer to deal with your request for an Internal
Review in respect of your request for information under the Freedom of
Information Act 2000, FOI 9946.

 

I am awaiting some details from colleagues before I can respond fully but
will be in touch once I have completed the Internal Review.

 

I hope that this information is helpful.

Kind regards,

Emma

 

Emma Griffiths | Lawyer | Law & Governance | Oxford City Council | St
Aldate's Chambers | St Aldate’s | Oxford OX1 1DS | DX 4309 Oxford 1 |
01865 252208 (POST POINT SAC 3.8)

 

Service of documents by email is accepted at
[1][email address] only. The subject header must be
marked ‘SERVICE’.  Service by fax is not accepted.

 

Stop the virus from spreading. Keep Oxford safe.

Follow the guidance: Clean hands. Wear a face mask. Keep your distance.
Get tested if you have symptoms.

 

     [2]cid:image004.png@01D3E785.A74A7E20

0016987 / 00650507

 

 

From: Kevin Spencer [[3]mailto:[FOI #734005 email]]

Sent: 30 March 2021 17:03

To: freedomofinformation

Subject: Internal review of Freedom of Information request - Oxford City
Council Employees Furloughed Earning Greater than 30K

 

Dear Oxford City Council,

 

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

 

I am writing to request an internal review of Oxford City Council's
handling of my FOI request 'Oxford City Council Employees Furloughed
Earning Greater than 30K'.

 

The information is not presented in a clear and unambiguous format. It is
difficult to determine from the way in which the data is presented if it
refers to all Oxford City Council employees or those earning over 30K or
Oxford City Council plus Oxford Direct Services?

 

A request was made for the funding of furloughed Oxford Direct Service
employees in addition to the money received from the Government.  The
request was turned down for the reason:  "To break this down further would
require a significant amount of resource time". I do not believe that it
would take a substantial amount of time to provide such data as It
probably already exists in a spreadsheet.  I would therefore ask for this
request to be reconsidered.

 

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

 

Yours faithfully,

 

Kevin Spencer

 

 

 

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Please use this email address for all replies to this request:

[5][FOI #734005 email]

 

Disclaimer: This message and any reply that you make will be published on
the internet. Our privacy and copyright policies:

[6]https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/help/offi...

 

For more detailed guidance on safely disclosing information, read the
latest advice from the ICO:

[7]https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/help/ico-...

 

Please note that in some cases publication of requests and responses will
be delayed.

 

If you find this service useful as an FOI officer, please ask your web
manager to link to us from your organisation's FOI page.

 

show quoted sections

GRIFFITHS Emma, Oxford City Council

2 Attachments

Dear Mr Spencer,

 

I have been asked by the Council’s Monitoring Officer, Susan Sale to write
to you further to your request for an internal review of your Freedom of
Information Request (FOI 9946). I apologise for the delay in dealing with
this internal review.

 

Your original request for information on 19 March 2021 said:

 

“1. How many Oxford City Council employees earning more than 30K per year
have been furloughed each month since March 2020.  For each employee
please list job title and furlough money received from the Government and
topped up by Oxford City Council.

 

2. How many Oxford Direct Services employees earning more than 30K per
year have been furloughed each month since March 2020.  For each employee
please list job title and furlough money received from the Government and
topped up by Oxford City Council.”

 

My colleague Kathryn Winfield wrote to you on 30 March 2021 as follows:

 

1.How many Oxford City Council employees earning more than 30K per year
have been furloughed each month since March 2020.  For  each employee
please list job title and furlough money received from the Government and
topped up by Oxford City Council.

 

The table below provides details of total furlough payments by month for
employees earning more than £30K per year.

 

We have not provided the job title as it would breach confidentiality as
the individual could be identifiable. Please see exemption below.

 

Total
Claim Employer
Month Number Total Top Up
Apr-20 34 21315.66 23279.83
May-20 38 48710.70 62309.16
Jun-20 25 55069.24 64485.31
Jul-20 7 10015.75 11128.04
Aug-20 4 6450.41 8495.72
Sep-20 1 2187.50 3597.10
Oct-20 1 1875.00 1875.00

 

2. How many Oxford Direct Services employees earning more than 30K per
year have been furloughed each month since March 2020. For each employee
please list job title and furlough money received from the Government and
topped up by Oxford City Council.

 

Please see attached spreadsheet [attached to this email].

 

We have not provided the job title as it would breach confidentiality as
the individual could be identifiable. Please see exemption below.

 

No funding has been contributed to Oxford Direct Services from Oxford City
Council because Oxford Direct Services (ODS) is a teckal company and
whilst wholly owned by Oxford City Council they are independently run.

 

To break this down further would require a significant amount of resource
time. Therefore, I am of the opinion, however, that retrieving the
information you require would exceed 18.5 working hours so consider
Section 12 of the FOIA to applies in this instance.

 

Section 40

Under s.1(1)(a) FOIA I can confirm the Council does hold the job title
details. However, I consider this to be personal information as the
individual could be identifiable.The Council has not received consent from
the person concerned to disclose their details. To release this
information would contravene the data protection principles contained in
the Data Protection Act 2018.  Therefore, I  consider that Sections 40 (2)
of the FOIA is engaged.

 

This email constitutes a Refusal Notice under section 17 of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 and exemptions under section  40 (2) of the FOIA is
applied.

 

40- Personal information

 

(1)Any information to which a request for information relates is exempt
information if it constitutes personal data of which the applicant is the
data subject.

(2)Any information to which a request for information relates is also
exempt information if—

(a)it constitutes personal data which does not fall within subsection (1),
and

(b)the first, second or third condition below is satisfied.

 

3A) The first condition is that the disclosure of the information to a
member of the public otherwise than under this Act—

(a)    would contravene any of the data protection principles, or

(b)    would do so if the exemptions in section 24(1) of the Data
Protection Act 2018 (manual unstructured data held by public authorities)
were disregarded.

3B)The second condition is that the disclosure of the information to a
member of the public otherwise than under this Act would contravene
Article 21 of the GDPR (general processing: right to object to
processing).]

4A)The third condition is that—

(a)on a request under Article 15(1) of the GDPR (general processing: right
of access by the data subject) for access to personal data, the
information would be withheld in reliance on provision made by or under
section 15, 16 or 26 of, or Schedule 2, 3 or 4 to, the Data Protection Act
2018, or

(b)on a request under section 45(1)(b) of that Act (law enforcement
processing: right of access by the data subject), the information would be
withheld in reliance on subsection (4) of that section.

(5A) The duty to confirm or deny does not arise in relation to information
which is (or if it were held by the public authority   would be) exempt
information by virtue of subsection (1).

(5B) The duty to confirm or deny does not arise in relation to other
information if or to the

extent that any of the following applies—

(a) giving a member of the public the confirmation or denial that would
have to be given to comply with section 1(1)(a)—

(i) would (apart from this Act) contravene any of the data protection
principles, or

(ii) would do so if the exemptions in section 24(1) of the Data Protection
Act 2018 (manual unstructured data held by public authorities) were
disregarded;

(b) giving a member of the public the confirmation or denial that would
have to be given to comply with section 1(1)(a) would (apart from this
Act) contravene Article 21 of the GDPR (general processing: right to
object to processing);

(c) on a request under Article 15(1) of the GDPR (general processing:
right of access by the data subject) for confirmation of whether personal
data is being processed, the information would be withheld in reliance on
a provision listed

in subsection (4A)(a);

(d) on a request under section 45(1)(a) of the Data Protection Act 2018
(law enforcement processing: right of access by the data subject), the
information would be withheld in reliance on subsection (4) of that
section.

(7) In this section—

"the data protection principles" means the principles set out in—

(a) Article 5(1) of the GDPR, and

(b) section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018;

"data subject" has the same meaning as in the Data Protection Act 2018
(see section 3 of that Act);

"the GDPR", "personal data", "processing" and references to a provision of
Chapter 2 of Part 2 of the Data Protection Act 2018 have the same meaning
as in Parts 5 to 7 of the Data Protection Act 2018 (see section 3(2), (4),
(10), (11) and (14) of that Act).

(8) In determining for the purposes of this section whether the lawfulness
principle in Article 5(1)(a) of the GDPR would be contravened by the
disclosure of information, Article 6(1) of the GDPR (lawfulness) is to be
read as if the second sub-paragraph (disapplying the legitimate interests
gateway in relation to public authorities) were omitted.

 

On 30 March 2020 you wrote as follows:

 

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

 

I am writing to request an internal review of Oxford City Council's
handling of my FOI request 'Oxford City Council Employees Furloughed
Earning Greater than 30K'.

 

The information is not presented in a clear and unambiguous format. It is
difficult to determine from the way in which the data is presented if it
refers to all Oxford City Council employees or those earning over 30K or
Oxford City Council plus Oxford Direct Services?

 

A request was made for the funding of furloughed Oxford Direct Service
employees in addition to the money received from the Government.  The
request was turned down for the reason:  "To break this down further would
require a significant amount of resource time". I do not believe that it
would take a substantial amount of time to provide such data as It
probably already exists in a spreadsheet.  I would therefore ask for this
request to be reconsidered.

 

In carrying out this internal review I have considered your request for
information and consider that in relation to your first question about
Oxford City Council employees, you have received the requested
information.

 

In relation to the number of employees within Oxford Direct Services
Limited ODSLtd who earn in excess of £30,000 and have been “furloughed”
since March 2020 please see below. No employees were furloughed during
March 2020.

 

Number of furloughed employees of ODSLtd earning >£30k

 

April                    79

May                     136

June                    109

July                      73

August                37         

September         20         

October              2           

November          42         

December          60         

January               121

February            76

March                 50

 

I can confirm that no funding has been contributed to Oxford Direct
Services Ltd employees by Oxford City Council because Oxford Direct
Services Ltd (ODSL) is a teckal company and whilst wholly owned by Oxford
City Council it operates independently.

 

I hope that this information is helpful.

 

If you are not satisfied with this response you may ask the Information
Commissioner to intervene on your behalf. You may do this by writing to
the Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire,
SK9 5AF.

 

Yours sincerely,

Emma Griffiths

For and on behalf of Susan Sale, Head of Law & Governance and Monitoring
Officer, Oxford City Council

 

Emma Griffiths | Lawyer | Law & Governance | Oxford City Council | St
Aldate's Chambers | St Aldate’s | Oxford OX1 1DS | DX 4309 Oxford 1 |
01865 252208 (POST POINT SAC 3.8)

 

Service of documents by email is accepted at
[1][email address] only. The subject header must be
marked ‘SERVICE’.  Service by fax is not accepted.

 

Stop the virus from spreading. Keep Oxford safe.

Follow the guidance: Clean hands. Wear a face mask. Keep your distance.
Get tested if you have symptoms.

 

     [2]cid:image004.png@01D3E785.A74A7E20

 

 

      

 

0016987 / 00655495

 

From: GRIFFITHS Emma
Sent: 28 April 2021 17:20
To: '[FOI #734005 email]'
<[FOI #734005 email]>
Cc: freedomofinformation <[Oxford City Council request email]>
Subject: FOI 9946 - Request for Internal Review

 

Dear Mr Spencer,

 

I apologise for the delay in writing to you. I have been asked by the
Council’s Monitoring Officer to deal with your request for an Internal
Review in respect of your request for information under the Freedom of
Information Act 2000, FOI 9946.

 

I am awaiting some details from colleagues before I can respond fully but
will be in touch once I have completed the Internal Review.

 

I hope that this information is helpful.

Kind regards,

Emma

 

Emma Griffiths | Lawyer | Law & Governance | Oxford City Council | St
Aldate's Chambers | St Aldate’s | Oxford OX1 1DS | DX 4309 Oxford 1 |
01865 252208 (POST POINT SAC 3.8)

 

Service of documents by email is accepted at
[3][email address] only. The subject header must be
marked ‘SERVICE’.  Service by fax is not accepted.

 

Stop the virus from spreading. Keep Oxford safe.

Follow the guidance: Clean hands. Wear a face mask. Keep your distance.
Get tested if you have symptoms.

 

     [4]cid:image004.png@01D3E785.A74A7E20

0016987 / 00650507

 

 

From: Kevin Spencer [[5]mailto:[FOI #734005 email]]

Sent: 30 March 2021 17:03

To: freedomofinformation

Subject: Internal review of Freedom of Information request - Oxford City
Council Employees Furloughed Earning Greater than 30K

 

Dear Oxford City Council,

 

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

 

I am writing to request an internal review of Oxford City Council's
handling of my FOI request 'Oxford City Council Employees Furloughed
Earning Greater than 30K'.

 

The information is not presented in a clear and unambiguous format. It is
difficult to determine from the way in which the data is presented if it
refers to all Oxford City Council employees or those earning over 30K or
Oxford City Council plus Oxford Direct Services?

 

A request was made for the funding of furloughed Oxford Direct Service
employees in addition to the money received from the Government.  The
request was turned down for the reason:  "To break this down further would
require a significant amount of resource time". I do not believe that it
would take a substantial amount of time to provide such data as It
probably already exists in a spreadsheet.  I would therefore ask for this
request to be reconsidered.

 

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

 

Yours faithfully,

 

Kevin Spencer

 

 

 

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Please use this email address for all replies to this request:

[7][FOI #734005 email]

 

Disclaimer: This message and any reply that you make will be published on
the internet. Our privacy and copyright policies:

[8]https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/help/offi...

 

For more detailed guidance on safely disclosing information, read the
latest advice from the ICO:

[9]https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/help/ico-...

 

Please note that in some cases publication of requests and responses will
be delayed.

 

If you find this service useful as an FOI officer, please ask your web
manager to link to us from your organisation's FOI page.

 

show quoted sections