Restrictions on civil servants below SCS grade looking to leave the civil service

The request was partially successful.

Dear Cabinet Office,

I should be grateful if you would provide details and/or copies of any policy document, internal guidance, memoranda, or other documents intended to provide cross-Government (department) standards that:

1. Provide for any prohibition on Civil Servants below SCS grades seeking to secure an alternative employment to the civil service (for the purposes of clarification this should be taken to mean a civil servant looking to find a post/employer other than the civil service that would necessitate resignation on accepting an alternative position);

2. Provide for any prohibition for civil servants below SCS grade on the use of recruitment consultancies, agents, or job search/networking websites and search engines where the career history, details, or other information is stored, published, or disseminated where the intention of the civil servant is to secure an alternative employment to the civil service at a future date;

3. Require a civil servant below SCS grade to declare or seek permission from their Department to look for another post as an alternative to employment in the Civil Service before embarking on a job search using any of the means mentioned above;

4. Mandates that the rules for seeking permission by a Civil Servant below SCS grade from either the Cabinet Office or their own Department to publish in the public domain (that would otherwise be intended for vetting or restricting the publication of memoires, papers, or other commentary of a serving or recently retired civil servant) also apply to the use by civil servants of job websites, job search engines, employment networking websites, employment agencies, when seeking alternative job opportunities to the civil service;

5. In any way prohibit or restrict a civil servant below SCS grade from passing their career history details or details of the kind and type of role or work sought to a potential employer or recruitment consultancy by any means with the intention of preventing them from leaving the Civil Service for alternative employment or facing disciplinary action for attempting to do so.

Yours faithfully,

Glynn Freeman

H Hamilton left an annotation ()

There are some guidelines on what civil servants can and can't do in terms of accepting outside employment on the CO website I think. I think it's on the same bit as the CS Code.

Departments also incorporate these rules in internal HR policies which would be disclosable under FOI. You'd have to FOI each department to get these though as I don't think they are published on their websites.

Good luck with your request - an interesting issue given the scale of job cuts in the CS.

Glynn Freeman left an annotation ()

The CS Management Guidelines relate to certain staff taking on work in addition to being Civil Servants, and on staff involved in sensitive commercial roles accepting jobs with companies with whom they deal with.

I am aware of civil servants on redeployment being threatend with disciplinary action for having put their details on employment websites when looking for an alternative career to the CS. The allegations include breaching the management code restrictions on publishing memoires without permission in relation to using the job websites. I am aware that this is happening as a result of managers looking to reduce staffing numbers without the expense of redundancy payments by attempting to manage staff out. This correlates with the increases in some department's reporting of increased incidents of bullying in their staff surveys (in some cases upwards of 20% of staff reporting that their manager's behaviour had breached aceptible standards).

The FOI request asks for copies of policy guidance given that either supports or denounces the behaviours that I have highlighted.

John Smith left an annotation ()

1, 2 and 3 are covered by the business appointment rules which can be found on the website of ACOBA - www.acoba.gov.uk

John Smith left an annotation ()

Only 3 insofar as the business appointment rules require civil servants who are offered other employment to tell their department in certain circumstances about the offer.

Cabinet Office

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CABINET OFFICE REFERENCE: FOI311408

Dear Glynn Freeman

Thank you for your request for information. Your request was received on
28/03/2011 and is being dealt with under the terms of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000.

This email is just a short acknowledgement of your request.

If you have any queries about this email, please contact me. Please
remember to quote the reference number above in any future communications.

Yours sincerely,

FOI Team

Cabinet Office

E: [Cabinet Office request email]
<mailto:[Cabinet Office request email]>

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Dear Cabinet Office,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Cabinet Office's handling of my FOI request 'Restrictions on civil servants below SCS grade looking to leave the civil service'.

A reply was due by the 28th March and has not been provided. I should be grafeul if a reply could be expedited as a matter of urgency.

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

Yours faithfully,

Glynn Freeman

Dear Cabinet Office,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Cabinet Office's handling of my FOI request 'Restrictions on civil servants below SCS grade looking to leave the civil service'.

This is now the second request for an internal review to establish why the request has not been answered in full by the due date of the 28th March 2011 and why no response or acknowldegement has been received from the previous request for a review. I also wish to establish when an answer will be forthcoming.

Failure to respond to this request will result in me escalating the complaint to the Information Comissioner.

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

Yours faithfully,

Glynn Freeman

Cabinet Office

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Freeman

Please see attached response to your recent FOI request. I apologise for
the delay it has taken to reply.

Paul Ballinger

Propriety and Ethics Team

Cabinet Office

Rm 208

70 Whitehall

London SW1A 2AS

email: [1][email address]

Making the Civil Service Work Better

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Glynn Freeman

Dear Cabinet Office,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Cabinet Office's handling of my FOI request 'Restrictions on civil servants below SCS grade looking to leave the civil service'.

The response points towards the Civil Service Code and the Civil Service Management Code. While both of these lay down the rules for accepting posts of a commercially sensitive nature immediately after a civil servant holds a post in which either commercially sensistive information relevant to a potential future employer, this does not directly answer the main points of the questions asked.

The questions relate to whether prohibitions exits on civil servants using job search websites or search engines and registering with employment agencies, and whether civil servants are barred from seeking alternative employment before resigning (and by implication whether guidance exists that requires a civil servant to resign before looking for another job).

If there is no such guidance that ansers these specific points (which are not covered in the codes mentioned above) than I should be grateful if this could be stated. Equally, if any documents elucidating an answer on any of these points exists I should be grateful for their production.

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

Yours faithfully,

Glynn Freeman

Cabinet Office

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  • Attachment

    Internal review of Freedom of Information request Restrictions on civil servants below SCS grade looking to leave the civil service.txt

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CABINET OFFICE REFERENCE: IR311408

Dear Glynn Freeman

Thank you for your request for an internal review. Your request was
received on 23^rd May 2011 and is being dealt with under the terms of the
Freedom of Information Act 2000.

This email is just a short acknowledgement of your request.

If you have any queries about this email, please contact me. Please
remember to quote the reference number above in any future communications.

Yours sincerely,

Knowledge and Information Management Unit

Cabinet Office

E: [Cabinet Office request email]
<mailto:[Cabinet Office request email]>

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Cabinet Office

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Dear Mr. Freeman,

Please find attached a response to your internal review.

Kind regards

Dat-Fay Ip

Knowledge and Information Management Unit

Cabinet Office

Room 3.30,

Admiralty Arch

LONDON SW1A 2WH

T: 020 7276 6352

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