19 December 2013 – FOI Response: 730.2013-14 – Freedom of information request
Request
- Please provide the total amount spent by the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner on recruitment in the past 12 months, including: advertisement; resources; and staff time.
- Please also provide how many advertised posts have been withdrawn following interviews and the reasons for this.
Response
Extent and Result of Searches to Locate Information
To locate the information relevant to your request searches were conducted within the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner for North Yorkshire. I can confirm that information is held by the Commissioner in response to some parts of your request.
Decision
I have today decided to disclose the located information to you.
Question 1
Expenditure incurred by the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner is published on the Commissioner’s website. You can access this information via the following link:
https://northyorkshire-pfcc.mixd.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Expenditure-to-April-2014.pdf
The costs associated with the recruitment of the Chief Constable are published and available via the above link. Please note there were two rounds of recruitment as a successful candidate was not identified following the first round of recruitment.
The information available via the above link will also provide you with information relating to other recruitment costs incurred by the OPCC in respect of other roles. The costs recorded via the link above include advertisement, resources and social media packages. These figures do not include the cost of OPCC/NYP staff time spent on recruitment activities, as recorded information is not held about this as they are carried out as part of normal business processes.
Since coming to office, the Commissioner has reduced the cost of the OPCC budget (which carried over from the former North Yorkshire Police Authority) from £1,080,000 to £980,000. The roles within the OPCC have been refocused to ensure they best meet the needs of the public, for example, with the development of caseworker and public engagement roles.
Question 2
I have interpreted this question to mean posts advertised which have then been abandoned and no recruitment has taken place in respect of that role. There have been no such withdrawn posts.
Section 21 – Information reasonably accessible by other means
It has been decided that the Commissioner is exempt from providing you with a separate copy of the information you have requested in question 1, as the information is available on the Commissioner’s website. Section 21 is a class based absolute exemption which does not require consideration of the harm or public interest when applying this exemption.
Section 17 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the Act) requires the Commissioner when refusing to provide information because the information is exempt, to provide the applicant with a notice which: (a) states the fact, (b) specifies the exemption in question and (c) states (if it would not otherwise be apparent) why the exemption applies.
Complaint Rights
Your attention is drawn to the attached sheet which details your right of complaint.