Response: Correspondence with the Civil Service Commission about Emily Middleton
Published 30 August 2024
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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/foi2024-00256-correspondence-with-the-civil-service-commission-about-emily-middleton/response-correspondence-with-the-civil-service-commission-about-emily-middleton
| Reference number | FOI2024-00256 |
|---|---|
| Date of request | 20 August 2024 |
| Date of response | 30 August 2024 |
| Outcome | Information partially disclosed |
Request for information
The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (the department) received the following request for information which we responded to under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA):
Please provide a copy of the application by DSIT to the Civil Service Commission (CSC) for an exemption from normal open recruitment rules in relation to the appointment of Emily Middleton to the civil service.
Please provide a copy of the CSC’s response to this application.
Please provide a copy of email correspondence between DSIT and the Civil Service Commission (CSC) concerning the exemption application from 4th July 2024 to the date of this request.
Our response
We can confirm that the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (the department) does hold the information in scope of your request.
This information includes:
Annex A
Civil Service Commission exception request form for an appointment as SCS Pay Band 2 and above.
Annex B
Email chain “RE: Approval Letter, Exception 1 - Temporary Appointments (Director General, Digital Centre)”.
Annex C
Email chain “RE: Approval Letter, Exception 1 - Temporary Appointments (Director General, Digital Centre)”.
Annex D
Email chain “For approval: Exemption 4 appointment request Director General, Digital Centre”. To note, we have withheld Emily Middleton’s CV under Section 40(2) of the Freedom of Information Act as it is deemed personal information. This document shows her career history and that she was previously seconded from Public Digital to the Labour Party.
Annex E
Letter from the Civil Service Commission to the department’s HR director confirming approval to appoint Emily Middleton under Exception 1.
Please note that while the department has received approval from the Civil Service Commission to appoint Emily Middleton for a fixed term of up two years (the maximum period an appointment can be made without an open and fair competition), the period of Emily’s appointment will remain under review as the design of the digital centre is finalised and implemented.
Please also note that while the department initially applied to the Civil Service Commission to appoint Emily Middleton as a Director General for a fixed term under Exemption 4 (highly specialist skills), the Civil Service Commission provided approval under Exemption 1 (temporary appointment) on the basis of Emily’s temporary role.
Section 40(2): Personal data of third parties
Some of the information you have requested is exempt from disclosure under section 40(2) because of the condition at section 40(3A) of the FOIA.
Section 40(2) and (40(3A) state:
(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.
The department has obligations under data protection legislation, and in law generally, to protect personal data. This exempts personal data from release if disclosure would contravene any of the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the UK General Data Protection Regulation and section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018. Release would breach the first data protection principle since it would be unlawful and unfair to disclose the information.
As section 40 is an absolute exemption, the department is not required to carry out a public interest test.
Further reviews
Please note that the requestor asked the department to complete an internal review of our original response. Our response to this request is included in this disclosure.