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London School of Economics

Incomplete, Original Response Total Refusal
-- Original Response (13 Nov 2014)
-- Second Response with just CFO salary (16 Dec 2014)

From: JJ Hermes
Sent: 20 October 2014 12:19
To: glpd.info.rights@lse.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 Thu, Nov 13, 2014 at 11:43 AM, D.Bennett@lse.ac.uk wrote (FW: FOI request):

Dear James Hermes

Thanks for your request under the Freedom of Information act.

The total number of employees who received total remuneration equal to, or in excess of £150,000 in 2013-14 was 56. This is broken down as the School Director, 51 Academic and Research employees and 4 within the Directors Management Team.
The School makes details of its high earners, including Director's emoluments, available in its Annual accounts.

http://www.lse.ac.uk/intranet/LSEServices/financeDivision/lSEFinancialStatements.aspx

We regard the release of more specific job titles as being exempt under the Act, as these titles would identify specific individuals, and would risk our obligations under the Data Protection Act, as set out at section 40 of the FOIA. We also regard the release of this information as having possible inflationary consequences for staff pay, which might affect the School's commercial activities. Accordingly, the exemption at section 43 has also been invoked.

If you think that the information provided does not meet your request, please write to Kevin Haynes, Head of the Legal and Compliance Team, Governance, Legal and Planning Division, London School of Economics and Political Science, Houghton Street, London, WC2A 2AE (k.j.haynes@lse.ac.uk). The response to your request will then be reviewed, and you will be informed of the outcome within 20 working days. You can also contact the Information Commissioner's Office http://www.ico.gov.uk/, though they expect the internal review to be carried out before receiving a complaint directly.

Best,
Dan Bennett
On Fri, Nov 14, 2014 at 10:59 AM, JJ Hermes wrote (RE: FW: FOI request):

Hi Dan,

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 LSE reserves the right to withhold public disclosure of individual staff and their salaries, which was part (1) of this request. However, the LSE has mostly or completely ignored parts (2) and (3) of this request, which do not require identification of individual staff members. Thus, I request the LSE 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. 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 LSE.

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 4:14 PM, R.E.Maguire@lse.ac.uk wrote (FW: FOI request):

Dear James,

I have been passed your request for internal review and will respond by 12th December 2014.

Regards,
Rachael Maguire
Records Manager
London School of Economics and Political Science
On Tue, Dec 16, 2014 at 9:43 AM, R.E.Maguire@lse.ac.uk wrote (FOI request internal review response):

Dear Mr Hermes,

With reference to your appeal about the response to your request for information under the Freedom of Information Act, I am writing to inform you that we have partially reversed our original decision and are now releasing some of the information to you.

The reason your appeal was partially upheld is contained in the decision of the Information Tribunal for a request for similar information at King's College London. The decision can be found here: http://www.informationtribunal.gov.uk/DBFiles/Decision/i1390/Kings%20College%20London%20EA.2014.0054%20(30.09.14).pdf. To summarise, the decision requires the School to release in bands of £10,000 salary and remuneration information relating to senior administrators who are on the Director's Management Team. As such, the following information can be released as part of your request:

Title, Initials, Surname -- Position -- Final Total -- Expenses
Mr A Farrell -- Chief Financial Officer -- £160,000-£170,000 -- £1,079.78

However, we are not required to provide information relating to senior academic staff as this is exempt under Section 43(2), commercial in confidence information. I will also make the point that less than 10% of the School's income is received in the form of government grants, and that the LSE is (and has been since 1901) a private limited company. The School is not as fully a public body as a government department is.

Regarding your specific point about the School not responding to your questions 2 and 3, we have provided what information we are required to above for 3. I think there may also be some confusion as to how we responded to your question 2. The School does not have tenured faculty, nor clinical staff as the School's focus is economics and social sciences. We do not have a medical faculty. Mr Farrell fits within your category c), so the answer to 2c) is 1. All the other staff members earning over £150,000 are academic, but do not fit into your categories. As my colleague Dan Bennett said, further breakdown of the numbers earning over £150,000 is in the School's Annual Accounts.

If you think that the information provided does not match your request, you have the right to contact the Information Commissioner's Office at this address: Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF.

The provision of information by the LSE under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 does not imply a right to copy, reproduce publish or otherwise use such information.

Copying or reproducing such information in any way either in whole or in part without prior written consent may be an infringement of copyright or other intellectual property right belonging to the LSE or a third party.

Yours sincerely,
Rachael Maguire
Records Manager
London School of Economics and Political Science
On Wed, Dec 17, 2014 at 3:05 PM, JJ Hermes wrote (Re: FOI request internal review response):

Dear Rachael,

Thank you for your positive response on 16 Dec 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 citing the recent First-Tier Tribunal decision, and your release of salary information for your Chief Financial Officer. However, I still do not believe you have responded in full to my request, and request two points of clarification.

In your initial response, you completed part (2) of my request perfectly adequately: "The total number of employees who received total remuneration equal to, or in excess of £150,000 in 2013-14 was 56. This is broken down as the School Director, 51 Academic and Research employees and 4 within the Directors Management Team."

In your most recent 16 Dec response, you acknowledge that the First-Tier tribunal decision requires you to disclose the salary information for "senior administrators who are on the Director's Management Team." However, you only disclose one year of salary information for just one of four members of the Directors Management Team making more than £150,000 in 2013-14.

Thus, my first request is that you release the names/titles and salary information for all four members of your Directors Management Team, as identified in your 13 Nov 2014 response to my FOI request. I also ask that you release their salary information not just for 2013-14 but for the past five years (annually from 2013-14 to 2009-10), as requested in part (3) of my original inquiry.

Additionally, I request that you complete part (3) of my request for the other 51 academic members of staff. I acknowledge that you reserve the right to withhold their names/titles. But I do request that you provide, for each of these 51 academics, their annual salaries for the past five years. This information can be anonymized by referring to each person as "Academic 1", "Academic 2", etc. This information for each member of staff is not broken down in the School's Annual Accounts, and is only accessible via a FOI request.


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 17, 2014 at 3:08 PM, R.E.Maguire@lse.ac.uk wrote (RE: FOI request internal review response):

Dear Mr Hermes,

You have been provided with the information relating to the only member of DMT who is professional staff and making more than £150,000 in total emoluments. The other members of DMT are not in that category. As such, we have provided you with the information we are required to under the Freedom of Information Act.

I have already provided you with the contact details of the Information Commissioner's Office if you wish to take this further.

Regards,
Rachael Maguire
Records Manager
London School of Economics and Political Science
On Tue, Jan 27, 2015 at 10:34 AM, JJ Hermes wrote (Re: FOI request internal review response):

Dear Ms Maguire,

I am completely perplexed by your 17 Dec 2014 response to my FOI request for information regarding senior staff members making more than £150,000 in total emoluments for the year ended 31 July 2014.

In your own original report you stated: "The total number of employees who received total remuneration equal to, or in excess of £150,000 in 2013-14 was 56. This is broken down as the School Director, 51 Academic and Research employees and 4 within the Directors Management Team."

Yet your subsequent response states: "You have been provided with the information relating to the only member of DMT who is professional staff and making more than £150,000 in total emoluments."

How can this number have gone from 4 to 1?

Before I involve the resources of the Information Commissioner's Office, I prefer to exhaust all reasonable avenues with the agency from which I am requesting information. Thus, I request you to please revisit and respond to my previous request with more time to digest the request than the 3 minutes you took previously:

- My first request is that you release the names/titles and salary information for all four members of your Directors Management Team, as identified in your 13 Nov 2014 response to my FOI request. I also ask that you release their salary information not just for 2013-14 but for the past five years (annually from 2013-14 to 2009-10), as requested in part (3) of my original inquiry.

- Additionally, I request that you complete part (3) of my request for the other 51 academic members of staff. I acknowledge that you reserve the right to withhold their names/titles. But I do request that you provide, for each of these 51 academics, their annual salaries for the past five years. This information can be anonymized by referring to each person as "Academic 1", "Academic 2", etc. This information for each member of staff is not broken down in the School's Annual Accounts, and is only accessible via a FOI request.

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 Tue, Jan 27, 2015 at 11:22 AM, R.E.Maguire@lse.ac.uk wrote (RE: FOI request internal review response):

Dear JJ Hermes,

As explained previously, the decision I referred to related to professional members of staff. The other three members of DMT in this category are academic staff and therefore not covered by the decision. I apologise if this was unclear.

As to your point about the previous four years, the School is exempting this information under Section 40(2). There is now an expectation by senior professional staff members on DMT that this information could be released. This expectation did not exist for the years previously.

I have explained the School's position on the information relating to the 51 academics and reiterate that we will not release this information to you. The full explanation is in my previous email.

Regards,
Rachael Maguire
Records Manager
London School of Economics and Political Science