Ryan Gallagher ryan@rjgallagher.co.uk Human Resources Directorate Foreign and Commonwealth Office King Charles Street London SW1A 2AH Website: https://www.gov.uk 13 March 2015 Dear Mr Gallagher INTERNAL REVIEW OF FOI REQUEST REF: 0036-15 Thank you for your email of 12 February 2015 asking for an internal review of the decision conveyed to you in our letter dated 12 February 2015. I am writing to confirm that I have conducted a full review of your request and our response to it. Your specific queries Regarding your specific queries you raised in your email of 12 February. For ease I have provided a response below to those questions. 1) Could you please provide me with the specific salary range applicable to Ms. Dick for 2015/16? I have searched the documents at the link you provided but none of them are clear on the relevant salary range. From what I can gather officials at the Director General level can earn anything between 135,000 to upwards of 245,000. (https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/623 43/high-earners-pay_0.csv/preview) We have already stated in our reply of 12 February that other than the information provided, details are exempt under section 23(1) of the Freedom of Information Act. Section 23(1) relates to information supplied by, or relating to, bodies dealing with security matters. Section 23 is an absolute exemption and therefore we are not obliged to consider the public interest in disclosure 2) You mentioned also that you identified some information that you later determined was "not within the scope of [my] request." As per Section 16 of the Freedom of Information Act (the duty of a public authority to provide advice and assistance to persons who have made FOIA requests) I would like to ask that you please provide me with more details about the information you believe fell outwith the scope of my original inquiry, as I would like to submit a new FOIA request to obtain this information. The FCO had been considering whether section 24 (national security) applied to the information within the scope of the request. However, after further consideration, we decided that this exemption did not apply to the information within the scope of the request because it is covered by Section 23. We very much regret if the wording that we used about Section 24 in the reply of 12 February caused any misunderstanding. 3) In your 12 February reply, you informed me that Ms. Dick is employed as a Director General. But Director General is a grade, not a job title. Could you therefore confirm that you are declining to release Ms.Dick's job title as per section 23(1) of the FOI Act? If so, it would be appreciated if you could provide an explanation for this, as job titles of officials working in roles associated the security services are usually routinely published online, for instance on government recruitment websites. This information is exempt under section 23(1) of the Freedom of Information Act, as information supplied by, or relating to, bodies dealing with security matters. Section 23 is an absolute exemption and therefore we are not obliged to consider the public interest in disclosure. Use of exemptions under the Freedom of Information Act It is my view, after careful examination of your request that the relevant parts of the FOI Act apply, that the FCO has correctly relied upon Section 23 (1) of the FOIA Section 23 is an absolute exemption and therefore we are not obliged to consider the public interest in disclosure. I am therefore content that Section 23(1) relating to information supplied by, or relating to, bodies dealing with security matters were correctly applied. Search for information The information within the scope is withheld under Section 23(1) of the FOIA. Therefore after careful consideration of the original handling of the request and on the basis of the findings above, the internal review has upheld the original decision. I hope you are satisfied with the process of this review and the outcome. However, if you feel we have applied the exemptions incorrectly and you wish to make a complaint, you may then apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: Information Commissioner's Office Wycliffe House Water Lane Wilmslow Cheshire Yours sincerely, June Walker June Walker Knowledge Management Policy Lead Business Management and Programmes Team We keep and use information in line with the Data Protection Act 1998. We may release this personal information to other UK government departments and public authorities.