Gov304 Information on staff appointments (Saesneg yn unig)

2 May  2012

Dear ,  

Request for Information – ATISN reference 5963

Thank you for your request which was received by the Welsh Government on 28th March 2012. You asked for:

- The number of appointments made by  the Welsh Assembly Government over the last five years that required a bachelor degree or equivalent
- The number of people appointed to these jobs that had Welsh as their first language
- The number of people appointed to these jobs that had Welsh as their second language; and 
- The number who were monoglot English speakers

I can confirm that the Welsh Government holds information which falls within the description specified in your request. However, I estimate that it will cost more than the appropriate limit established in the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate limit and Fees) Regulations 2004 to consider your request in relation to Welsh Government appointments, made both internally and externally.

The appropriate limit specified for central government is £600. This represents the estimated cost of it taking over 24 hours of working time to determine whether we hold the information, locating the information, retrieving the information and extracting it.

To provide the information would require a review of all of our recruitment files for last 5 years in order to interrogate the data and provide the information.

I estimate that it would take approximately 2 minutes to scrutinise the information relating to each of the 765 vacancies advertised.  This full exercise would take an estimated 25.5 hours to complete as 2 minutes multiplied by 765 records divided by 60 = 25.5. Therefore your request would exceed the appropriate limit.

You will wish to also note that with regard to parts 2,3 and 4 of your request, the Welsh Government does not capture this information. The only Welsh language data captured is in relation to the levels of Welsh for example, written, understanding and reading.

We do hold information on most staff's Welsh language skills in terms of level 0-5 in reading, speaking, understanding and writing but it is not possible to map these skills with staff appointed to the Welsh Government within the last 5 years.  This data is completed on a voluntary basis by individual staff members.  Information on the Welsh Language skills of staff is already available to the public and is contained in the 2010-11 Welsh Language Annual report (page 95 contains the info on Welsh Language skills), (see potlight)

Any information released under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 or Environmental Information Regulations 2004 will be listed in the Welsh Government’s Disclosure Log (at www.information.wales.gov.uk).

If you believe that I have not followed the relevant laws, or you are unhappy with this response, you may request an internal review by writing to:

Mr Peter Kennedy
Director, People – People, Places and Corporate Services
Welsh Government
Cathays Park
Cardiff, CF10 3NQ.

When dealing with any concerns, we will follow the principles set out in the Welsh Government’s Code of Practice on Complaints which is available on the Internet at www.wales.gov.uk or by post.

You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner.  Normally, however, you should pursue the matter through our internal procedure before you complain to the Information Commissioner. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:

Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Tel: 01625 545 745
Fax: 01625 524 510
Email: casework@ico.gsi.gov.uk

Also, if you think that there has been maladministration in dealing with your request then you may make a complaint to the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales who can be contacted at:

Public Services Ombudsman for Wales
Ffordd yr Hen Gae
Pencoed
Bridgend
CF35 5LJ
Yours sincerely

Human Resources
Welsh Government