Special Advisers Pay Northern Ireland

The request was successful.

Dear Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister (Northern Ireland),

I request the current salary paid to each Special Adviser working in the Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister (Northern Ireland). I am aware of that the salary scale for these individuals is published, but I am specifically requesting details of the actual salary.

I also request the point on the salary scale that each person was on when they were appointed to their role and if not appointed to the bottom point of the scale, the justifications provided for that.

Yours faithfully,

D Moore

OFMDFM FOI,

Thank you for your FOI request of 11 March 2014 which we are proceeding with. It would be helpful if you could provide us with your forename, to help us distinguish your applicant details from those of others which are the same or very similar. This information would help us to address you in a correct and proper way when in engaging in further correspondence with you.

Regards
Scott

Information Management and Central Advisory Branch (IMCAB)
Castle Buildings
Stormont Estate
BELFAST
BT4 3SR

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Dear Scott,

Apologies for that - its David Moore.

David.

Stanfield, Ena,

1 Attachment

Mr Moore

Please find attached an acknowledgement of your recent FOI request.

Regards

Ena

Ena Stanfield
Personnel Branch
Office of the First Minister &
Deputy First Minister (OFMDFM)
Room A5.01
Castle Buildings
BELFAST
BT4 3SR

Tel: 028 905 22516
Fax: 028 905 22339

Stanfield, Ena,

1 Attachment

Mr Moore

Please find attached OFMDFM’s response to your recent FOI request.

Regards

Ena

Ena Stanfield
Personnel Branch
Office of the First Minister &
Deputy First Minister (OFMDFM)
Room A5.01
Castle Buildings
BELFAST
BT4 3SR

Tel: 028 905 22516
Fax: 028 905 22339

Dear Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister (Northern Ireland),

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister (Northern Ireland)'s handling of my FOI request 'Special Advisers Pay Northern Ireland'.

The information refused is refused on the grounds that it is personal information. I draw your attention to a recent decision of the First Tier Tribunal Appeals body (Appeal No: EA/2012/0250) which ruled that for the class of person, this information should be released.

Your reply confirms that the salary band each Special Adviser is on is more than £50,000 per annum. The practice in the UK Government is to publish this information and I would need an explanation as to why this is not done in this instance by a junior body of government (http://data.gov.uk/dataset/special-advis...). I finally draw your attention to the fact that this is a politically appointed role, and that the public good would require this information being released.

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

Yours faithfully,

D Moore

OFMDFM FOI,

1 Attachment

  • Attachment

    Internal Review acknowledgement IR 2014 0006 Re 0024 Moore Special Advisers salaries.pdf

    98K Download View as HTML

Mr Moore

Please see attached acknowledgement.

Regards

Marty

Dear Mr Maitland,

I am just wondering when a response is expected.

Yours sincerely,

David Moore

OFMDFM FOI,

Mr Moore

Thank you for your e-mail of 8th May 2014. We will respond as soon as we can.

Regards
Scott

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Dear OFMDFM FOI,

I was just wondering if I could expect a response this week.

Yours sincerely,

D Moore

OFMDFM FOI,

Mr Moore

Please accept my apologies for the delay in responding to your request. Your request is still under consideration and I regret that we are not in a position to respond at this time.

Regards
Scott

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Dear Scott,

Just looking for an update on this.

I would be grateful if you could advise what the delay is?

Yours sincerely,

D Moore

OFMDFM FOI,

Mr Moore

Apologies again for the delay in responding to your request. The Internal Review is still under consideration and I can give no further information regarding it at present.

Regards

Paul

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Dear OFMDFM FOI,

Could you please advise as to why there is a delay in dealing with this request?

Yours sincerely,

D Moore

OFMDFM FOI,

Dear Mr Moore

Thank you for your email to enquire about the internal review request. The review is currently under consideration and at present I am unable to give you any further details.

Apologies again for the delay.

Paul

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Dear Paul,

Can you advise as to the reasons for the delay and when a reply can be expected, if ever?

There doesn't seem to be any good reason for the delay.

Yours sincerely,

David Moore

Dear OFMDFM FOI,

Can you please advise when the Internal Review will be completed?

It is now considerably overdue. I'd be grateful for any explanation as to the reason why.

Yours sincerely,

D Moore

Rodney Breen left an annotation ()

The Information Commissioner's Office advises that internal reviews should only take more than 20 days in exceptional circumstances, and should in no case take longer than 40 working days. Given that the OFMDFM have a history of using internal reviews to delay answering requests indefinitely, you would do well to make a complaint at this point to the Information Commissioner.

http://www.justice.gov.uk/information-ac...

Dear OFMDFM FOI,

Can you advise as to the status of this request?

Yours sincerely,

D Moore

Dear OFMDFM FOI,

Can you please advise when a response will issue?

My understanding is that political clearance is still being sought from DFM. Can this be confirmed?

Yours sincerely,

D Moore

OFMDFM FOI,

Dear Mr Moore

Thank you for your email regarding the internal review request. The review is currently under consideration and at present I am unable to give you any further details.

Apologies for the delay.

Paul

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Dear Paul,

Can you advise the reason for the delay?

Yours sincerely,

David Moore

Dear Mr Moore

I am afraid I cannot provide further details on your request for an internal review as this case is now being investigated by the Information Commissioner Office.

Yours sincerely

Paul Naylor
IMCAB
A5.18
Castle Buildings
Stormont Estate
BT4 3SR
Tel 02890 523183

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Dear Paul,

Can you provide an update on this and the reason that an investigation by the Information Commissioners Office would delay the matter?

Yours sincerely,

D Moore

OFMDFM FOI,

Dear Mr Moore

I'm afraid that there is no further update to give as the internal review findings would be superseded by the decision of the ICO. For this reason the internal review process is suspended during the ICO investigation.

Your sincerely

Paul Naylor
IMCAB
A5.18
Castle Buildings
Stormont Estate
BT4 3SR
Tel 02890 523183

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ICO Decision Notice,

1 Attachment

Dear Mr David Moore

As requested, please find attached an electronic version of the signed
decision notice dated and posted 3 March 2015. I have copied below the
covering letter:

By email: [1][FOI #201623 email]

3 March 2015

Dear Mr Moore

Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA)

Our reference: FS50548738 (OFMDFM)

Please find attached a decision notice relating to your complaint about a
request for information submitted to OFMDFM.

Your complaint has been considered by the Commissioner and the decision
notice sets out the reasons for the decision. If you disagree with the
decision notice, you have the right to appeal to the First-tier Tribunal
(Information Rights). 

The Commissioner will publish the decision on the ICO website, but will
remove all names and addresses of complainants. If the public authority
also chooses to reproduce the decision notice, then the Commissioner
expects similar steps to be taken.

You should write to us if the public authority fails to comply with any
steps specified by the Commissioner in the decision notice. It is
important to note that our power to commence legal proceedings in this
situation is discretionary and although we will look into the matter,
formal action will not be appropriate in all cases.

I hope the above information is helpful.

Yours sincerely

Sarah O’Cathain

Senior Case Officer

Direct line: 01625 545272

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Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow,
Cheshire, SK9 5AF
Tel: 0303 123 1113 Fax: 01625 524 510 Web: www.ico.org.uk

References

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Doug Paulley left an annotation ()

Five spam messages have recently appeared on this request. It is apparent that the email address associated with this request has been harvested as spammers. To prevent further spam, I have set the request to refuse any emails other than those sent by the public authority. If this creates any difficulties or for any information, please contact the WhatDoTheyKnow team.

--
Doug -- Volunteer, WhatDoTheyKnow.com

Dear Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister (Northern Ireland),

I refer to the ICO Decision with their Reference: FS50548738 (OFMDFM)

I have received no further response from the Office of the First and Deputy First Minister. Can you please advise as to your intentions in this regard?

Yours faithfully,

D Moore

Stanfield, Ena,

1 Attachment

Mr Moore

Please find attached OFMDFM’s response to your FOI request.

Regards

Ena

Ena Stanfield

HR Business Partner
Personnel Branch
Office of the First Minister &
Deputy First Minister (OFMDFM)
Room A5.10
Castle Buildings
BELFAST
BT4 3SR

Tel: 028 905 22516

Dear Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister (Northern Ireland),

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister (Northern Ireland)'s handling of my FOI request 'Special Advisers Pay Northern Ireland'.

While the information has finally been released, each statutory deadline has been breached. I request that each such delay be internally reviewed and explained.

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

I also refer to the voluminous correspondence between your Department and the ICO on this matter.

Yours faithfully,

D Moore

OFMDFM FOI,

Dear Mr Moore

Thank you for your email of 14 May 2015 requesting an internal review of
the handling of your FOI request ‘Special Advisers Pay Northern Ireland’.

There is no statutory requirement under the FOI Act to carry out internal
reviews of the handling of FOI requests – there is such a requirement
under the Environmental Information Regulations 2004.  However, OFMDFM
does offer requesters the option of an internal review as a matter of good
practice.

In any case, you have, in fact, exhausted the FOI appeals process
regarding the above request, as you have now received the information the
ICO required the Department to disclose as per its Decision Notice of 3
March 2015 (FS50548738).

Consequently, we do not propose to take any further action regarding your
correspondence.

Paul Naylor

IMCAB

A5.18

Castle Buildings

Stormont Estate

BT4 3SR

Dear Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister (Northern
Ireland),

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Office of the First Minister
and Deputy First Minister (Northern Ireland)'s handling of my FOI request
'Special Advisers Pay Northern Ireland'.

While the information has finally been released, each statutory deadline
has been breached. I request that each such delay be internally reviewed
and explained.

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

I also refer to the voluminous correspondence between your Department and
the ICO on this matter.

Yours faithfully,

D Moore

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