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University of Nottingham

Partially Complete, Seeking Classification of Staff
-- Original Response (13 Nov 2014): Nottingham1.pdf
-- Follow-up Response (24 Nov 2014): Nottingham2.xlsx (Nottingham2.pdf)
-- Subsequent follow-up (12 Dec 2014): Nottingham3.pdf

From: JJ Hermes
Sent: 20 October 2014 12:19
To: freedom-of-information@nottingham.ac.uk
Subject: FOI request

To whom it may concern,

I respectfully request the following information under the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act:

1. The names and titles of all senior staff members making more than £150,000 in total emoluments for the year ended 31 July 2014. These individuals are considered "higher-paid staff" by the Higher Education Funding Council (HEFCE).

2. Please identify the number of individuals identified in the first request who are (a) tenured faculty, (b) clinical staff, or (c) serve in a non-classroom capacity, such as administrative staff.

3. The total emoluments for the past five (5) years for each of the senior staff identified in the first request.

There is wide precedent across publicly funded entities in the UK of regularly disclosing this type of information. The Accounts and Audit (Amendment no 2) Regulations of 2009 require local authorities to publish the actual salaries, allowances, bonuses, compensation and employer's pension contributions paid to each employee who earned over £50,000, and in addition to publish the names of those staff who earned over £150,000 (http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2009/3322/made). It is not necessary to disclose the exact salary of the employees earning more than £150,000, but rather to quote that amount in bands of £10,000, as directed by the HEFCE.

The request holds significant public interest, given that the university is a publicly funded institution of higher education that derives a significant portion of funding from public taxation. In addition, openness is, in itself, something in the public interest in promoting accountability and transparency in the spending of public money. As suggested by the Information Commissioner's Office, "It is reasonable to expect that a public authority would disclose more information relating to senior employees than more junior ones. Senior employees should expect their posts to carry a greater level of accountability." Employees earning more than £150,000 annually can be considered senior employees, since this compensation is more than twice the highest grade on the human resources salary scale.

I look forward to hearing back from you regarding this request. Please do not hesitate to contact me with any follow-up questions. I would prefer all correspondence be sent digitally through this e-mail address, including the response to this request. Thank you for your time in addressing this query.

Sincerely,
JJ Hermes
On Mon, Oct 20, 2014 at 4:34 PM, Freedom-Of-Information (freedom-of-information@nottingham.ac.uk) wrote (RE: FOI request):

Dear Mr Hermes,

Thank you for your request for information regarding our higher paid staff. Your request was received on 20th October and is being dealt with under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

We will respond to your request within twenty working days. Please note this is calculated from the following working day from receipt of your request.

I hope that this is of help. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any enquiries regarding this email.

Yours sincerely,
Jennifer Rochfort
Information and Records Manager
Registrar's Department
On Tue, Nov 4, 2014 at 1:58 PM, Freedom-Of-Information (freedom-of-information@nottingham.ac.uk) wrote (RE: FOI request):

Dear Mr Hermes,

I am contacting you about your Freedom of Information Request. We are in the process of collating this information, but I wanted to clarify with you that we will be providing the information to you under the following categories:

Academic, Non Academic, Clinical Academic.

We do not recognise the term tenured faculty, please can you specify what you define this term to mean if you would like us to investigate this also.

Regards,
Jenny

_________________
Jennifer Rochfort
Information and Records Manager
The University of Nottingham
Academic Services Division
E-Floor Portland Building
Nottingham NG2 7RD
t: +44 (0) 115 74 84017
On Tue, Nov 4, 2014 at 2:14 PM, JJ Hermes wrote (RE: FOI request):

Hi Jenny,

The distinctions "Academic, Non Academic, Clinical Academic" are excellent, thank you for clarifying. Apologies for using a phrase ("tenured faculty"), which is really only used in the US; no need to investigate that term.

Cheers,
JJ Hermes
On Tue, Nov 4, 2014 at 2:15 PM, Freedom-Of-Information (freedom-of-information@nottingham.ac.uk) wrote (RE: FOI request):

Thank you for confirming this.

Regards,
Jenny
On Thu, Nov 13, 2014 at 1:01 PM, Freedom-Of-Information (freedom-of-information@nottingham.ac.uk) wrote (FOI: Senior Staff Emoluments):

Dear Mr Hermes,

I am writing further to your request for information regarding Senior Staff Emoluments. A search of our electronic and paper records has been completed and I can confirm that the information you have requested is held by the University.

1. The names and titles of all senior staff members making more than £150,000 in total emoluments for the year ended 31 July 2014. These individuals are considered "higher-paid staff" by the Higher Education Funding Council (HEFCE).

2. Please identify the number of individuals identified in the first request who are Academic, Non Academic and Clinical Academic.

3. The total emoluments for the past five (5) years for each of the senior staff identified in the first request.

Category -- Number of Employees:

Academic -- Less than 10
Clinical Academic -- 52
Non Academic -- Less than 10

Academic staff are identified as those from the Research, Research and Teaching or Teaching job family. Clinical academic staff are identified as those from the clinical academic job family. Non Academic Staff are identified as those from the Administrative, Professional and Managerial job family.

Where figures are less than 10 we have not specified the exact number as to do so would greatly increase the likelihood of individuals being identified which would breach the Data Protection Act 1998 as these individuals have a reasonable expectation that their personal data will not be released.

We recognise that, from the information provided here alone, it would be difficult to identify the individuals concerned. Nevertheless, under the remits of the Data Protection Act 1998, we note that personal data constitutes that from which the Data Controller can identify an individual. Therefore there may be other information which you could obtain from the University, either through further Freedom of Information requests or other means, that could be used to identify the individuals here. The risk of this is greatly increased where numbers are less than 10 and it is for this reason that we do not specify such small numbers of individuals. Should an individual be identified then the University would be in breach of the First Principle of the Data Protection Act.

Senior Academic Staff:
We believe that the names and titles of all 'Senior Academic Staff' receiving emoluments greater than £150,000 is exempt from disclosure under section 43(2) of FOIA, Prejudice to Commercial Interest, and section 40(2) Personal Information.

We believe that disclosing the names and job titles of our Senior Academic Staff would prejudice our commercial interests and impact on the cost of recruiting and retaining our staff. The University of Nottingham operates in a highly competitive environment and our Senior Academic Staff are considered to be one of our key assets; revealing this information would give competitor universities, or private sector organisations, the advantage in luring them away. In addition, disclosure would impede salary negotiations by encouraging candidates to seek higher salaries based on salaries paid for posts they regard as being comparable. We have applied the public interest test in maintaining the exemption and we believe there is a strong public interest in non-disclosure of this information. Revealing the remuneration of our Senior Academic Staff could encourage greater competitiveness between institutions, driving up the remuneration packages awarded, and we believe that this would not be in the public interest.

We believe that disclosing the total emoluments for our Senior Academic Staff would be in breach of section 40(2) of the Freedom of Information Act, Personal Information. This data would reveal trends in total emoluments given and may identify discretionary bonuses awarded which we believe is the personal information of those individuals. Disclosing this information would be in breach of the first principle of the Data Protection Act in that the individuals concerned would have an expectation that information would not be disclosed. We agree that there is a public interest relating to the pay bands for our high paid staff but we believe that we have met this requirement to disclose this information by routinely publishing the pay bands of our higher paid staff within our Annual Financial statements. We believe it would not be fair to disclose total emolument figures as such information is not generally disclosed in the higher education sector, and has not been disclosed by the University in the past.

Non Academic Staff:
We have less than 10 members Non Academic Staff whose total emoluments is in excess of £150,000. This figure includes the Vice Chancellor, Professor Sir David Greenaway.

We believe that the total emoluments for the Vice Chancellor for the financial year ending 2014 is exempt from disclosure under Section 22(1) of the FOIA, Information Intended for Future Publication. The University routinely publishes emoluments for the Vice Chancellor in our Annual Financial Statements. We have applied the public interest test and we believe that the public interest in maintaining this exemption outweighs the public interest of disclosure. We believe there is a public interest to adhere to existing timelines for the publication of data that is of public interest to society. Premature publication could undermine the principle of making information available to all members of the public at the same time through the official publication process.

We believe that the total emoluments for the Vice Chancellor for the financial years preceding 2014 is exempt from disclosure under section 21(1) from disclosure under Freedom of Information, Information reasonably accessible to the applicant by other means. The total emoluments for the Vice-Chancellor is routinely published in our annual financial statements:
http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/fabs/finance/publications/financialstatements.aspx

We shall not be disclosing the name, job title or total emoluments for any other members of our Non Academic Staff whose total emoluments is in excess of £150,000 as we believe this is exempt under section 40(2) Personal Information. This data would reveal trends in total emoluments given and may identify discretionary bonuses awarded which we believe is the personal information of those individuals. Disclosing this information would be in breach of the first principle of the Data Protection Act in that the individuals concerned would have an expectation that information would not be disclosed. We agree that there is a public interest relating to the pay bands for our high paid staff but we believe that we have met this requirement to disclose this information by routinely publishing the pay bands of our higher paid staff within our Annual Financial statements. We believe it would not be fair to disclose total emolument figures as such information is not generally disclosed in the higher education sector, and has not been disclosed by the University in the past.

If you are unhappy with the way in which your request has been handled and wish to request a review of our response or to make a complaint, please see the attached information sheet and form.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any enquiries regarding this email.

Yours sincerely,
Jennifer Rochfort
Information and Records Manager
Registrar's Department
On Fri, Nov 14, 2014 at 11:03 PM, JJ Hermes wrote (Re: FOI: Senior Staff Emoluments):

Hi Jennifer,

I write to respectfully dispute a withholding of information requested under a Freedom of Information Act of 2000 request dated 20 Oct 2014, requesting information about senior staff members making more than £150,000 in total emoluments for the year ended 31 July 2014. I do not believe this response has at all addressed my original request, which included three parts:

1. The names and titles of all senior staff members making more than £150,000 in total emoluments for the year ended 31 July 2014. These individuals are considered "higher-paid staff" by the Higher Education Funding Council (HEFCE).

2. Please identify the number of individuals identified in the first request who are (a) tenured faculty, (b) clinical staff, or (c) serve in a non-classroom capacity, such as administrative staff.

3. The total emoluments for the past five (5) years for each of the senior staff identified in the first request.

I understand from your 13 Nov 2014 response that the University reserves the right to withhold public disclosure of individual staff and their salaries, which was part (1) of this request. However, the University has not responded in full to parts (2) and (3) of this request, which do not require identification of individual staff members. Thus, I request the University respond to this original request in full:

Please identify all senior staff members making more than £150,000 in total emoluments for the year ended 31 July 2014. Since you are withholding the identity of these staff by name or title, please categorize them as one of the following, as per part (2) of this request: (a) academic staff, (b) clinical staff, or (c) administrative (non-academic) staff. Then, please provide the annual emoluments for the past five (5) years for each of the senior staff making more than £150,000 in total emoluments identified in the first part of this request, with the exception of the Vice Chancellor, since that information is already publicly accessible. As a guide, attached is an example of a completed response generated recently by the University of Cambridge answering an identical request to that which I have posed to the University.

I appreciate your response in full to this request under the Freedom of Information Act of 2000. I look forward to hearing back from you regarding this request. Please do not hesitate to contact me with any follow-up questions. I would prefer all correspondence be sent digitally through this e-mail address, including the response to this request. Thank you for your time in addressing this query.

Sincerely,
JJ Hermes
On Mon, Nov 17, 2014 at 11:58 AM, Freedom-Of-Information (freedom-of-information@nottingham.ac.uk) wrote (RE: FOI: Senior Staff Emoluments):

Dear Mr Hermes,

Thank you for your email regarding our response to your freedom of information request.

I can confirm that we have received your request for a full review into this and that we shall contact you again once this has been completed.

Regards,
Jennifer Rochfort

_________________
Jennifer Rochfort
Information and Records Manager
The University of Nottingham
Academic Services Division
E-Floor Portland Building
Nottingham NG2 7RD
t: +44 (0) 115 74 84017
On Mon, Nov 24, 2014 at 9:15 AM, Freedom-Of-Information (freedom-of-information@nottingham.ac.uk) wrote (RE: FOI: Senior Staff Emoluments):

Dear Mr Hermes,

I am contacting you about our review of your Freedom of Information request regarding Senior Staff Emoluments. We have reconsidered the information you have requested and have reassessed the information previously withheld.

In conclusion we have determined that releasing the salary bands alone of our members of senior staff earning more than £150,000 in total emoluments would not be in breach of the Data Protection Act, providing that we maintain our stance and do not release this data in such a way that it would identify the actual number of staff contained within each of the smaller category bands that fall below less than 10.

Where figures are less than 10 we do not specify the exact number as to do so would greatly increase the likelihood of individuals being identified. This would breach the Data Protection Act 1998 as these individuals have a reasonable expectation that their personal data will not be released.

We recognise that, from the information provided here alone, it would be difficult to identify the individuals concerned. Nevertheless, under the remits of the Data Protection Act 1998, we note that personal data constitutes that from which the Data Controller can identify an individual. Therefore there may be other information which you could obtain from the University, either through further Freedom of Information requests or other means, that could be used to identify the individuals here. The risk of this is greatly increased where numbers are less than 10 and it is for this reason that we do not specify such small numbers of individuals. Should an individual be identified then the University would be in breach of the First Principle of the Data Protection Act.

Therefore, to protect these small numbers we have presented the information replacing 'Senior Staff Member' for each category. The spreadsheet attached does not include the total emoluments for our Vice chancellor as this information is exempt from disclose for the reasons previously stated in our original response. From the total number of staff listed in the spreadsheet provided we also recognise that the actual numbers for the less than ten categories can be determined to be very small numbers. We have balanced the probability of individuals being identified from the small numbers inferred from the data provided, and we have concluded that the probability of individuals being identified remains small. We are therefore willing to provide this data.

We note that the data already provided to you from the University of Cambridge does not include numbers less that ten in any of the staff categories.

I hope that this review and the additional information provided meets your expectations. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any enquiries regarding this email.

Regards,
Jennifer Rochfort
Information and Records Manager
Registrar's Department

-- Attachment: Nottingham2.xlsx (Nottingham2.pdf)
On Wed, Dec 3, 2014 at 9:04 AM, JJ Hermes wrote (Re: FOI: Senior Staff Emoluments):

Dear Jennifer,

Thank you very much for your positive response on 14 Nov 2014 to my 20 Oct 2014 FOI request for information about senior staff members making more than £150,000 in total emoluments for the year ended 31 July 2014. As a reminder, that request comprised three parts:

1. The names and titles of all senior staff members making more than £150,000 in total emoluments for the year ended 31 July 2014. These individuals are considered "higher-paid staff" by the Higher Education Funding Council (HEFCE).

2. Please identify the number of individuals identified in the first request who are (a) tenured faculty, (b) clinical staff, or (c) serve in a non-classroom capacity, such as administrative staff.

3. The total emoluments for the past five (5) years for each of the senior staff identified in the first request.

I appreciate you breaking down the salary information by person, as requested in Part (3) of my request. However, in order to fully respond to Part (2) I would request that you please please put the category of their appointment (clinical, academic, non-academic, etc.). Describing a member of staff as "academic" or "non-academic" or "clinical" is in no way identifying information, and cannot be withheld under the remits of the Data Protection Act. However, I do request you identify by name and title all members of the University's senior administrative staff (e.g., pro-vice-chancellors, chief financial officer, chief operating officer, directors of institutes, etc.). For the other senior staff, simply listing the category of their appointment (clinical, academic, non-academic, etc.) is sufficient.

Supporting evidence for naming the senior administrative staff comes from a First-Tier Tribunal has ruled in a very similar case that universities must disclose the names/titles and salaries of all members of the PSS (Professional Services staff; ie, the senior management team) making more than £100,000 in total emoluments. The Information Commissioner's Office found in case FS50513117 dated 17 Feb 2014 that King's College London must release the names/titles and salaries of *all* staff making more than £100,000 in total emoluments (http://ico.org.uk/~/media/documents/decisionnotices/2014/fs_50513117.pdf). However, the First-Tier Tribunal ruled on 2 Oct 2014 in Case No. EA/2014/0054, an appeal from King's College, that only the names and salaries of members of the PSS (Professional Services staff; ie, the senior management team) making more than £100,000 in total emoluments are subject to disclosure (http://www.informationtribunal.gov.uk/DBFiles/Decision/i1390/Kings%20College%20London%20EA.2014.0054%20(30.09.14).pdf).

I appreciate your response in full to this request under the Freedom of Information Act of 2000. I look forward to hearing back from you regarding this request. Please do not hesitate to contact me with any follow-up questions. I would prefer all correspondence be sent digitally through this e-mail address, including the response to this request. Thank you for your time in addressing this query.

Sincerely,
JJ Hermes
On Wed, Dec 3, 2014 at 4:43 PM, Freedom-Of-Information (freedom-of-information@nottingham.ac.uk) wrote (RE: FOI: Senior Staff Emoluments):

Dear Mr Hermes,

Thank you for your email.

The University will now consider its final response in relation to your request for a review and we shall respond to you within 20 working days.

Kind regards,
Jennifer Rochfort

_________________
Jennifer Rochfort
Information and Records Manager
The University of Nottingham
Academic Services Division
E-Floor Portland Building
Nottingham NG2 7RD
t: +44 (0) 115 74 84017
On Tue, Jan 27, 2015 at 10:32 AM, JJ Hermes wrote (Re: FOI: Senior Staff Emoluments):

To whom it may concern,

On 3 Dec 2014, I requested a review of your response to a FOI request I submitted on 20 Oct 2014 for information about senior staff members making more than £150,000 in total emoluments for the year ended 31 July 2014. It has been well more than 20 working days since I last heard from you regarding a review of my FOI request. Could you please let me know where that now stands?

Sincerely,
JJ Hermes
On Tue, Jan 27, 2015 at 11:32 AM, Freedom-Of-Information (freedom-of-information@nottingham.ac.uk) wrote (RE: FOI: Senior Staff Emoluments):

Dear Mr Hermes

A response to your request for a review was sent to you on 12 December 2014.

I have attached this for your information.

Yours sincerely,
Karen Page

Information Compliance Officer -- Freedom of Information
Registrar's Department

-- Attachment: Nottingham3.pdf