Response: Request for correspondence about the appointment of Emily Middleton
Published 30 August 2024
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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/foi2024-00262-correspondence-about-the-appointment-of-emily-middleton/response-request-for-correspondence-about-the-appointment-of-emily-middleton
| Reference number | FOI2024-00262 |
|---|---|
| Date of request | 21 August 2024 |
| Date of response | 30 August 2024 |
| Outcome | Information partially disclosed |
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):
I would like to request all correspondence between the new secretary of state and department officials about the appointment of Emily Middleton (prior to the appointment). I would particularly like any emails released between the permanent secretary and secretary of state about hiring Emily Middleton.
Our response
We can confirm that the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (the department) does hold the information in scope of your request, including:
Annex A
A submission to the Secretary of State (11 July 2024) on senior civil service resourcing, including an accompanying annex. This routine submission outlined the guidance on how senior level appointments to the Civil Service are made and invited him to review the anticipated senior civil servant internal moves in the department and provide a steer on his preferred approach to the appointments. It is government policy that the Secretary of State reviews all exceptions to the ‘external by default’ policy for senior civil servant recruitment.
Annex B
Response from the Secretary of State to the submission in Annex A.
Annex C
Extracts from emails referencing the appointment of Emily Middleton including:
-
an extract from a meeting summary between the Secretary of State and Mike Potter (the Government Chief Digital Officer) on 15 July 2024
-
an extract from a weekly update note from Freya Guinness (Chief Operating Officer) to the Secretary of State on 22 July 2024
Section 40(2): Personal data of third parties
Some of the information you have requested is exempt from disclosure and has been redacted 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.