FOI Request - Review of 101003563278 CIPD
Request 101003624471
Review of 101003563278 CIPD
I am not satisfied with the length of time it took to reply to my FOI.
Please explain why it was not completed within the 20 day statue?
Then explain if Moray Council think an FOI submitted on 7 May 24 was not replied to until 12 July 24 ( 50 working days over double the length of the statue) is acceptable?
How many Freedom of Information requests have been submitted from January this year 2024 which have not been responded to within the 20 day statue? Is this information reported to anyone? Which department has the highest amount of 20 day statue breaches?
Regarding the Freedom of information request 101003563278 , i am not satisfied with the answers to the questions for the reasons listed below.
Question 1 of the roles listed above do all Grade 9 and above hold a CIPD level 7 qualification. The FOI was submitted on the 7 May 24 and up to 20 days to respond to the FOI took to 4 June 24. Can the person who submitted the response confirm that on the 4 June all roles as described had a CIPD level 7 not equivalent qualification or memberships, not working towards qualifications, specifically as the question was asked?
Whomever completed the FOI 101003563278, did they use any equivalent qualification or memberships, or working towards qualification when they answered any of the questions?
When answering this FOI were qualifications seen by the employee who responded? If not, where was the information gathered from?
Question 5 why does it specify grade 9,11,13 None have fellow membership.
Does that suggest the Head of HR, ICT and OD and Depute Chief Executive (Education Communities & Organisational Development) hold a Chartered Fellow membership of the CIPD? Please confirm if that is what was meant by the response and explain why the response did not simply say no -all the roles do not have chartered fellow membership?
The same issue occurred in question 6, it was not simply answered with yes or no, as the answer would have been no based on their response.
So does the response suggest Grade 11 does not have chartered membership? Does it suggest that the Head of HR, ICT and OD and Depute Chief Executive (Education Communities & Organisational Development) do have chartered membership?
The request asked for yes and no responses to avoid any specific reference to individual roles, yet the responses did not answer the questions with yes or no. Why?
Question 13 was not answered as described. Question 14 was not answered in relation to question 13.
The question was not 'Has Moray Council paid for any employees IN OD to undertake a CIPD level 5 Qualification'?
So please answer the correct question which was has Moray Council paid for ANY employee to undertake a CIPD level 5 Qualification?
Then please answer Question 14 accurately.
The accurate answers to question 13 and 14 would then ensure question 17 and 18 have been answered correctly.
A further concern, does anybody read, verify or check that the FOI responses actually answer the questions asked in the FOI before they are uploaded onto the council website?
Response 11-09-2024
Following your request for a review (our ref: 101003624471) of your Freedom of Information (FOI) Request – CIPD 101003563278, a review meeting was held on 4th September 2024. In attendance were the Information Governance Manager and Data Protection Officer, Human Resources Manager, and Information Co-ordinator; and in consultation with the relevant Solicitor following the review meeting.
Your FOI Request from 2nd of May 2024 was discussed, and we reviewed our response of 12th July 2024.
We apologise for the delay in completing the FOI response; this was due to the workload pressures at the time and combined with sickness absence/vacancies within the relevant team. To answer your additional question, we can confirm that there have been 27 FOIs since January 2024 that have breached the 20 working day response deadline; of these, 13 were designated to HR for responses. The Council endeavours to complete FOI requests on time and for 2024 thus far the Council has a 96.9% deadline compliance success rate. Access to Information statistics are sent to the Scottish Information Commissioner’s Office; they collate and publish these statistics online: https://www.foi.scot/statistics .
Regarding your queries about the responses provided, please see our clarification below:
1. You asked: “[…] of the roles listed above do all Grade 9 and above hold a CIPD level 7 qualification. The FOI was submitted on the 7 May 24 and up to 20 days to respond to the FOI took to 4 June 24. Can the person who submitted the response confirm that on the 4 June all roles as described had a CIPD level 7 not equivalent qualification or memberships, not working towards qualifications, specifically as the question was asked? “
Our response: Yes, we believe that all staff at grade 9 and above within the HR/OD team have achieved this level of qualification
2. “Did [whoever completed the response] use any equivalent qualification or memberships, or working towards qualification when they answered any of the questions?”
Our response: No
3. “When answering this FOI were qualifications seen by the employee who responded? If not, where was the information gathered from?”
Our response: Not all have been seen by the team member collating the response, but discussions took place with others who have
4. “Question 5: why does it specify grade 9,11,13? None have fellow membership.”
Our response: We can amend our answer to ‘no’ if that is preferable
5. “Does that suggest the Head of HR, ICT and OD and Depute Chief Executive (Education Communities & Organisational Development) hold a Chartered Fellow membership of the CIPD? Please confirm if that is what was meant by the response and explain why the response did not simply say no -all the roles do not have chartered fellow membership?”
Our response: On reviewing this question we can clarify by confirming that neither of these posts work with the OD Department, as such we would like to update to: Information Not Held. Information that is not held falls under Section 17 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 - Information not held.
6. “The same issue occurred in question 6, it was not simply answered with yes or no, as the answer would have been no based on their response. So does the response suggest Grade 11 does not have chartered membership? Does it suggest that the Head of HR, ICT and OD and Depute Chief Executive (Education Communities & Organisational Development) do have chartered membership?”
Our response: Information not held. Information that is not held falls under Section 17 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 - Information not held.
7. “The request asked for yes and no responses to avoid any specific reference to individual roles, yet the responses did not answer the questions with yes or no. Why?”
Our response: We were trying to be helpful, as we are required to be under Section 15 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002. To clarify, our response can be amended to ‘no’.
8. “Question 13 was not answered as described. Question 14 was not answered in relation to question 13. The question was not 'Has Moray Council paid for any employees IN OD to undertake a CIPD level 5 Qualification'? So please answer the correct question which was has Moray Council paid for ANY employee to undertake a CIPD level 5 Qualification?
Then please answer Question 14 accurately.
Our response: Our records indicate there has been no assistance in payment, therefore the answer is No.
9. “A further concern, does anybody read, verify or check that the FOI responses actually answer the questions asked in the FOI before they are uploaded onto the council website?
Our response: Yes. Departments are trusted to provide accurate responses and are encouraged to confirm information. A further sense check of a proposed response is then done by the FOI Team when the response is published and the request closed.