Direct Appointments: Request for Details for Appointments Made from 2011-2021
Request ID: FOI-1406-2122 Date published: 13 October 2021
You asked
Hello FOI teams at LU and TFL.
Could you kindly provide a yearly detailed breakdown/audit et al, in a simple table of every Direct Appointment made to LU and TFL over the past 10 years or though a comparative scheme if different in name?
Please provide details of:
1a)
-Definition of type of Direct Appointment being used and process used.
-Year in question.
-Number of Direct appointments for said year -BAME profiles (inc. Religion) of Appointments for said year -BAME profiles (inc. Religion) of the required Managers/Directors that were required to process said appointment for said year.
-Anonymised forms and justifications for said appointments under the requisite processes.
-Grades, Roles, business areas of individuals that created the Direct appointment. (For a particular year you could list ALL grades/roles/Business areas that were involved in sanctioning Direct Appointments) -Grades/Roles/Bandings to which Direct Appointments were appointed to. (Band 5 x, Band 3 x etc) -Totals of all per year and per banding/per role/ -Totals per BAME group including religion for said appointments.
Please then provide accumulated individual details of direct appointments in terms of:
1b)
-Year appointed and process time-frames for said appointment.
-Role, Grade, Business Area appointed to.
-BAME profiles (inc. Religion) of those appointed -BAME profiles (inc. Religion) for said decision-makers for appointing -Original employment status (External Role or Internal Grade role/salary) of person appointed -Salary information for said appointment -Justification (Original form and signatories cited if known or requisite anonymisation applied to information) provided where possible. If not, please state why not.
Interlocutors and decision-makers for said Direct Appointments.
Direct Appointment is defined by TFL and LU here:
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/follow_up_to_area_manager_questi#incoming-1882328
If this is different for any year or appointment to be provided, then please state the different definition.
A format of answer could be a table as provided in many previous answers such as:
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/tfl_and_lu_graduate_scheme_data#outgoing-1158671
If any impediment arises due to the 10 year time-scale, please detail this impediment and the requisite issues in providing it for said timescale, without impeding any readily available information which may be more accessible and should be provided without any aforementioned delay which may occur.
Due to the linked definition of direct appointments contained herein, the rarity of such occurrences should mean that this information should be easily and readily available.
We answered
TfL Ref: FOI-1406-2122
Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 30th September 2021 asking for information about Direct Appointments made by TfL from 2011-2021.
Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act and our information access policy.
Specifically you asked:
“Could you kindly provide a yearly detailed breakdown/audit et al, in a simple table of every Direct Appointment made to LU and TFL over the past 10 years or though a comparative scheme if different in name?
Please provide details of:
1a) -Definition of type of Direct Appointment being used and process used. -Year in question. -Number of Direct appointments for said year -BAME profiles (inc. Religion) of Appointments for said year -BAME profiles (inc. Religion) of the required Managers/Directors that were required to process said appointment for said year. -Anonymised forms and justifications for said appointments under the requisite processes. -Grades, Roles, business areas of individuals that created the Direct appointment. (For a particular year you could list ALL grades/roles/Business areas that were involved in sanctioning Direct Appointments) -Grades/Roles/Bandings to which Direct Appointments were appointed to. (Band 5 x, Band 3 x etc) -Totals of all per year and per banding/per role/ -Totals per BAME group including religion for said appointments.
Please then provide accumulated individual details of direct appointments in terms of:
1b) -Year appointed and process time-frames for said appointment. -Role, Grade, Business Area appointed to. -BAME profiles (inc. Religion) of those appointed -BAME profiles (inc. Religion) for said decision-makers for appointing -Original employment status (External Role or Internal Grade role/salary) of person appointed -Salary information for said appointment -Justification (Original form and signatories cited if known or requisite anonymisation applied to information) provided where possible. If not, please state why not. Interlocutors and decision-makers for said Direct Appointments.
I can confirm that we hold some of the information you require. However, your request is being refused under section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act. Under section 12, a public authority such as TfL is not required to provide information if it would cost more than £450 to determine if that information is held, and to then locate, retrieve or extract that information from elsewhere. This is calculated at a rate of £25 per hour, equivalent to 18 hours work.
There is no quick or efficient way of sourcing all of the information you have requested. I understand that there are around 100 such appointments per year (based on data from the last 3 years) which would equate to c1000 appointments across the 10 years in question.The requested information is not collated nor stored in a single place and in some instances would require the cross-checking of different sets of records. For example, you have asked for the “BAME profiles (inc. Religion)” of the people concerned - and for the same information in relation to Managers and Directors. In order to obtain this we would need to identify the people in question and then cross-check whether such information is held within our central HR records for those individuals. Given we think this would relate to around 1000 people (and that’s just the appointees, notwithstanding the same information is requested of Managers etc.) then answering this aspect alone would breach the 18 hour threshold (which is equivalent to 1,080 minutes).
In order to bring the request within the costs limit you may wish to narrow its scope to focus on the information that is of most importance to you.
Please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to appeal as well as information on copyright and what to do if you would like to re-use any of the information we have disclosed.
Yours sincerely,
David Wells FOI Case Officer FOI Case Management Team General Counsel Transport for London
