Request
Please could you provide the following information under the freedom of information act covering the last 24 months, or the most recent 24-month period recorded:
1. Has the department used agencies to recruit temporary/contractor staff and what is the total spend for the period? Please provide a breakdown of your answer to question 1, splitting the spend by job title/specialism.
2. Has the department used agencies to recruit permanent staff and what is the total spend for the period? Please provide a breakdown of your answer to question 2, splitting the spend by job title/specialism.
3. What frameworks do you have access to when hiring temporary/contractor staff?
4. What frameworks do you have access to when hiring permanent staff?
5. What recruitment managed services do you have in place for hiring temporary/contractor staff?
6. What recruitment managed services do you have in place for hiring permanent staff?
7. The contact name and contact details the person responsible for dealing with temporary/contractor recruitment?
8. The contact name and contact details of the person responsible for dealing with permanent recruitment?
Outcome
Some information provided
Response
1. Has the department used agencies to recruit temporary/contractor staff and what is the total spend for the period? Please provide a breakdown of your answer to question 1, splitting the spend by job title/specialism.
2. Has the department used agencies to recruit permanent staff and what is the total spend for the period? Please provide a breakdown of your answer to question 2, splitting the spend by job title/specialism.
For questions 1 and 2 we are unable to provide you with this information as we have determined that the cost of identifying, locating and retrieving the information you have requested is in excess of the specified cost limit of £600 for central government departments.
As part of our duty to provide advice and assistance under Section 16, we have specifically identified that your request for the breakdown of the total spend over the two-year period specified is exempt under section 12. Due to a change in our accounting system in 2023, retrieving this information would require each invoice to be checked individually. There are approximately 1800 invoices for the two years requested. We would however be able to provide the total spend for both years for question 1, and the total spend for the most recent year (2023-24) for question 2.
3. What frameworks do you have access to when hiring temporary/contractor staff?
Crown Commercial Service frameworks and LUPC frameworks
4. What frameworks do you have access to when hiring permanent staff?
Crown Commercial Service frameworks and LUPC frameworks
5. What recruitment managed services do you have in place for hiring temporary/contractor staff?
We have no recruitment managed service in place for hiring temporary/contractor staff.
6. What recruitment managed services do you have in place for hiring permanent staff?
We have no recruitment managed service in place for hiring permanent staff.
7. The contact name and contact details the person responsible for dealing with temporary/contractor recruitment?
8. The contact name and contact details of the person responsible for dealing with permanent recruitment?
For questions 7 and 8, both temporary/contractor and permanent recruitment is managed locally by individual departments, supported as necessary by the procurement team. Our head of HR and Business Partnering is Hannah Lee.
Exemptions applied
Section 12: Exemption where cost of compliance exceeds appropriate limit
Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) makes provision for public authorities to refuse requests for information where the cost of dealing with them would exceed an appropriate limit, which for central government departments like The National Archives, is set at £600. This represents the estimated cost of one person spending just over three working days determining whether the department holds the information, as well as locating, retrieving and extracting the information.
We estimate that it will take us in excess of this time to identify the appropriate information, and locate, retrieve and extract it as the scope of your request is too wide-ranging. Therefore, your request will not be processed further.
You may wish to consider refining your request. However, please note that we are unable to guarantee that any refined requests would fall within the cost limit.
Further guidance on the application of this exemption can be found at: https://ico.org.uk/media/for-organisations/documents/1199/costs_of_compliance_exceeds_appropriate_limit.pdf