Government recruitment freeze exemptions

Request 719445670

Regarding the current government recruitment freeze, I would like to know:

1. A list of all requests to departmental Chief Officers for an exemption to the recruitment freeze, including the Job Title for each role and whether approval for an exemption was agreed or not for the role

2. For those roles approved at Chief Officer level, which were then declined when assessed by the CEO or Chief People Officer or States Employment Board?

The current approval process for exemptions to the recruitment freeze is integrated within a broader process that also manages other employee-related changes

Response

The current approval process for exemptions to the recruitment freeze is integrated within a broader process that also manages other employee-related changes Extracting and compiling the specific data required to respond to this request would exceed the time and cost limit set out in Article 16(1) of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011. Therefore, we must decline to provide a response to this question.

However, the People Services department is currently developing a new form that will allow for clearer categorisation of applications, approvals, and rejections related to the recruitment freeze. This improved system is expected to be implemented by July 2025, enabling us to offer enhanced information in this area moving forward.

Article applied

Article 16 - A scheduled public authority may refuse to supply information if cost excessive

(1) A scheduled public authority that has been requested to supply information may refuse to supply the information if it estimates that the cost of doing so would exceed an amount determined in the manner prescribed by Regulations.​

Internal Review Request

I would like to request a review of the decision to not release the information requested on the grounds of time/cost it would take. The information requested (regarding exemptions to the recruitment freeze) relates to a very limited number of officers (i.e. the Chief Officers of each department and the Chief Executive Officer) and even a manual search and tally would not be expected to exceed the time/cost limits, assuming all communications are electronic and decisions recorded accordingly. Given that the requests, as per the response, are otherwise built into an existing process I do not understand how it can be prohibitively timely or expensive to provide this information.

​Internal Review Response

This internal review has been conducted by an official of appropriate seniority who has not been involved in the original decision. As part of their review, they will be expected to understand the reasons behind the original response, impartially determine whether the response should be revised, and how so, considering the request and the information held, any relevant exemptions, or other relevant matters under the Law.  

The Internal Review Panel was asked to review the original response and confirm the following:  

Does the FOI request relate to a body to which the Law applies, or information held by a body covered by the Law?  

If the answer is no, all the other questions are not applicable.      

Further questions if above is a yes:   

i. Was the right information searched for and reviewed? 

ii. Was the information supplied appropriately?

iii. Was information appropriately withheld in accordance with the articles applied and were the public interest test/ prejudice test properly applied?

Following discussion, it was agreed by the Panel that the decision was overturned, and the following was agreed. 

During the internal review, it was considered that the application of Article 3 would be more suitably applied to this request which states that:

A Scheduled Public Authority is not required to manipulate and create new data sets.

This information is not held in recorded form. 

Article 3 - Meaning of “information held by a public authority”

For the purposes of this Law, information is held by a public authority if –

(a)     it is held by the authority, otherwise than on behalf of another person; or

(b)     it is held by another person on behalf of the authority.