Staff qualifications at DEFA

Summary

The requester asked for specific data on DEFA staff resignations with PhDs or veterinary degrees and their replacement rates over 10 years. The authority provided proxy data based on staff using the title 'Dr' and veterinary degree counts, but stated they lacked resources to determine exact replacement figures, leading to the request lapsing.

Key Facts

• The request was made on 2021-11-02 and lapsed on 2021-12-07 because the specific information requested was not fully provided.
• The authority used the title 'Dr' as a proxy for PhD holders, noting that staff choice affects data accuracy.
• Over the period 2011-2021, 3 people with veterinary degrees left the department and 2 started.
• The authority stated they do not have the resource to determine how many vacated posts were replaced or if replacements held equivalent qualifications.
• The authority cited Section 8(3) of the Freedom of Information Act regarding the obligation not to create new collated records.

Data Disclosed

• 2021-11-02
• 2021-12-07
• 10 years
• 3 people with veterinary degrees left
• 2 people with veterinary degrees started
• 10 staff with 'Dr' title in 2021
• 9 staff with 'Dr' title in 2020
• Section 8(3)

Exemptions Cited

• Section 8(3) of the Freedom of Information Act (no obligation to create collated records)

Original Request

Please could you supply the following; 1) The number of staff with a qualification of a PhD or equivalent (including veterinary degrees) that have resigned from DEFA over the last 10 years. 2) How many of these posts were subsequently replaced? 3) How many of these replaced posts are now occupied by officers with the equivalent qualifications (i.e have a PhD or veterinary degree)?

Data Tables (1)

Full Response Text

From: To: Cc: Subject: FW: FW: Information request (ref: 2065854) re Staff Qualifications at DEFA (ref: 2065854) Date: 31 December 2021 14:50:13 Dear , Further to my email and your suggestion below we have interrogated the HR system and arrived at the figures below for people who record “Dr” as their title.   Year The number of DEFA Oracle/PiP employment records containing the title 'Dr' (fig. is at the year-end) DEFA employees with ‘Dr’ in their title who started DEFA employees with ‘Dr’ in their title who left 2021 10 2 1 2020 9 1 2 2019 10 1 0 2018 9 2 2 2017 9 2 1 2016 8 0 0 2015 8 0 1 2014 9 1 2 2013 10 1 0 2012 9 1 0 2011 8 No data No data Over the same period, 3 people with veterinary degrees have left the Department and 2 have started.   I think it is worth noting that it is a personal choice whether to record a title as “Dr”. There may well be employed officers who choose not to. Your original request asked for the “number of staff with a qualification of a PhD or equivalent …”. While use of the title “Dr” may be a useful proxy for a person holding a PhD the figures above may not accurately reflect the number of people who actually hold PhD, or equivalent, qualifications. That would require a much more detailed search of HR records.   An even more detailed piece of work would be required to determine how many of the vacated posts were replaced and of those, how many were replaced with equivalent qualifications. We do not currently have the resource to do this work. I think however it is a reasonable assumption that a post requiring a PhD or equivalent qualification might usually be replaced with similar but I know this has not always been the case as the requirements of posts change over time.   The information above is significantly different from that first requested; that was very specific while we have now used a proxy for a PhD qualification. With apologies once again that you had to remind us I am happy that we have been able to work together and we are now able to supply some information. I hope it is what you require.   Please let me know if you need anything else or if anything is unclear. Best wishes for a Happy New Year   From:

Sent: 30 December 2021 10:16 To:

Cc: Subject: RE: FW: Information request (ref: 2065854) re Staff Qualifications at DEFA (ref: 2065854)   Dear , Hope you had a good Christmas. Sorry about the delay in reply but I'm just back in work. You should have had an automated "Out of Office" response to your email informing you of this. Please see my responses to your comments below. Best wishes for a Happy New Year.   -----Original Message----- From:

Sent: 11 December 2021 14:20 To:

Subject: Re: FW: Information request (ref: 2065854) re Staff Qualifications at DEFA (ref: 2065854)   Caution: This email is from an external sender. Please take care before opening any attachments or following any links.   Dear , so if I had not written to the Department reminding of its obligations I would have had no reply whatsoever. Not a good enough answer I am afraid. I agree, not good enough, but I'm afraid that may well have been the outcome. Once again, apologies.   All pay slips are addressed to individuals with the prefix Mr, Ms, Mrs or Dr, are you really saying that the system will not enable filtering (if staff are not able to do this then maybe they need coaching on database management?). We will look into your suggestion that we could search by “title”. That may allow us to provide information on those people who use their title. I’ll also try to find out how far back we could go as the current system has only been in use for a couple of years. I think it would also be the case that we may no longer hold some information on people who have left as there would be limited lawful reason to do so. I will let you know the outcome to this enquiry.   I will be making representation to the information Commisioner and will revert back in due course. That is, of course, your right.   Yours,     Sent using the mail.com mail app   On 11/12/2021 at 12:07, wrote:   -----Original Message----- From: Sent: 11 December 2021 12:06 To: Cc: Subject: RE: Information request (ref: 2065854) re Staff Qualifications at DEFA (ref: 2065854)

Dear , We have looked into the management system for FoI request and it appears that the email requesting clarification, that we thought had been sent on the 2nd November, was not actually sent. Please accept our apologies for this error.

The letter of the 3rd December however, remains valid. We are not obliged to provide the information you request as the parameters you state are very broad. To provide the information would require us, at a minimum, to search through a lot of information, to then filter out permanent posts and compare those that have been replaced. I agree we probably have a limited number of PhDs but the information on who holds these is not collated. We would have to create that collated record. This compilation, collation and creation is something we are not required to do under section 8(3) of the Act.

If you could narrow the parameters however to a single distinct section of the Department (for instance the Government Laboratory or the Fisheries team) and a very limited time period (two years at most) we could look at providing that information.

As I mentioned previously, if it proves possible to provide information in this way you could then submit further requests along similar lines.

If you wish to request a review of this response the details of how to do this are in the letter of the 3rd November. Until then this request remains closed.

Kind regards

-----Original Message----- From: Sent: 03 December 2021 18:20 To: DEFA, iCaseWork FOI <

Subject: Re: Information request (ref: 2065854) re Staff Qualifications at DEFA (ref: 2065854)

Caution: This email is from an external sender. Please take care before opening any attachments or following any links.

Dear , I received this yesterday from your colleague. I was informed by that this information was provided in an email on or about the 3rd November. I requested a copy of this email (which would be date stamped) as I have not received such. The attached shows a date of the 3rd December!

Please can you provide proof of the email sent in Early November (original email or saved copy thereof so the metadata of the message can be interrogated).

I do not accept the reasons you express. You yourself have worked in the department for more than 10 years and know as well as I do that the department has a limited number of PhDs in its mist. I also find the figure of 98 staff as somewhat implausible in a two year window. I am of course referring to permanent officers/posts and not temporary or casual contracts.

Yours,

Sent using the mail.com mail app

On 03/12/2021 at 17:25, Department of Environment Food and Agriculture wrote:

Dear , Please find attached the response to your request. Kind regards

Freedom of Information Co-ordinator (DEFA, IOM Office of Fair Trading and Road Transport Licensing Committee) Corporate Services, Thie Slieau Whallian, Foxdale Road, St John's, IM4 3AS, Isle of Man.

Isle of Man. Giving you freedom to flourish

WARNING: This email message and any files transmitted with it are confidential and may be subject to legal privilege. You must not copy or deliver it to any other person or use the contents in any unauthorised manner without the express permission of the sender. If you are not the intended addressee of this e-mail, please delete it and notify the sender as soon as possible.

No employee or agent is authorised to conclude any binding agreement on behalf of any of the Departments or Statutory Boards of the Isle of Man Government with any party by e-mail without express written confirmation by a Manager of the relevant Department or Statutory Board.

RAAUE: S’preevaadjagh yn çhaghteraght post-l shoh chammah’s coadanyn erbee currit marish as ta shoh coadit ec y leigh. Cha nhegin diu coipal ny cur eh da peiagh erbee elley ny ymmydey yn chooid t’ayn er aght erbee dyn kied leayr veih’n choyrtagh. Mannagh nee shiu yn enmyssagh kiarit jeh’n phost-l shoh, doll-shiu magh eh, my sailliu, as cur-shiu fys da’n choyrtagh cha leah as oddys shiu.

Cha nel kied currit da failleydagh ny jantagh erbee conaant y yannoo rish peiagh ny possan erbee lesh post-l er son Rheynn ny Boayrd Slattyssagh erbee jeh Reiltys Ellan Vannin dyn co- niartaghey scruit leayr veih Reireyder y Rheynn ny Boayrd Slattyssagh t’eh bentyn rish.

Department of Environment, Food and Agriculture

  Rheynn Chymmyltaght, Bee as Eirinys

3 December 2021

Our ref: 2065854 Dear ,

This request is being handled under the Freedom of Information Act 2015.

We write further to your request which was received on the 2nd November 2021 and which states:

"Please could you supply the following;

1) The number of staff with a qualification of a PhD or equivalent (including veterinary degrees) that have resigned from DEFA over the last 10 years.

2) How many of these posts were subsequently replaced?

3) How many of these replaced posts are now occupied by officers with the equivalent qualifications (i.e have a PhD or veterinary degree)?"

In your telephone conversation with my colleague on the 2nd December you explained that you did not wish to narrow the parameters of your request. While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance, complying with your request for information would require the Department of Environment, Food & Agriculture to:  undertake research into, or analysis of, information that it holds, and  undertake substantial collation of information that it holds to the extent that it would be an unreasonable burden on the Department’s resources; which the Department is not required to do under section 11(3) the Act. Further information As further explanation of the work required to collate the information requested I would like to offer the following brief explanation. Freedom of Information Co-ordinator Corporate Services Directorate Thie Slieau Whallian, Foxdale Road, St John’s, Isle of Man, IM4 3AS Tel no (01624) 685854 Fax no (01624 685851 Email: defa@gov.im www.gov.im

Dozens of staff leave each year (108 have left since 2018) and a similar number are recruited across all levels. At the time of recruitment CVs are submitted and assessed and these will contain qualification details. This information is never however, transferred to any other record such as a spreadsheet that would make a reasonable search more feasible. Searches for this information would necessitate a manual process involving finding the names of those having left over the 10 year period you mention and retrieving the files. Those records would then need to be manually filtered to find “PhD or equivalent” qualifications. This alone would clearly involve substantial research. There would then need to be substantial collation and compilation of the retrieved information into a form that could be used in a response. For these reasons the Department of Environment, Food and Agriculture is not obliged to comply with your request as it is currently phrased. Review You may also submit a request for a review of this response; the details of how to do this are below. While a review cannot expand upon an original request you may wish to take this opportunity to narrow the parameters of your request. I would advise however they would have to be narrowed significantly to bring the work involved below a threshold of “substantial collation and compilation”. I suggest maybe focussing on one or two roles may be appropriate.
Use of terms such as “or equivalent” is also not helpful as they necessitate a determination by the Department of what is “equivalent”. My understanding is that, apart from substantial and demonstrable experience and knowledge there is no equivalent to a PhD. Although I note that you mention in one question a veterinary degree being equivalent please be specific in every case in relation to what you mean by “equivalent” or any similar term. If it proves possible to supply information in this way you could then submit a further request relating to different roles and/or a different time period. Should you wish to submit a fresh request in simplified terms please complete and submit the required form available on our website at www.gov.im/about-the-government/freedom- of-information/make-a-freedom-of-information-request/. Should you require any assistance to reformulate your request please do not hesitate to contact the person named below who will be able to assist. Please quote the reference number 2065854 in any future communications.

Your right to request a review

If you are unhappy with this response to your freedom of information request, you may ask us to carry out an internal review of the response, by completing a complaint form and submitting it electronically or by delivery/post.

An electronic version of our complaint form can be found by going to our website at https://services.gov.im/freedom-of-information/Review . If you would like a paper version of our complaint form to be sent to you by post, please contact me and I will be happy to arrange for this. Your review request should explain why you are dissatisfied with this response, and should be made as soon as practicable. We will respond as soon as the review has been concluded.

If you are not satisfied with the result of the review, you then have the right to appeal to the Information Commissioner for a decision on; 1. Whether we have responded to your request for information in accordance with Part 2 of the Freedom of Information Act 2015; or 2. Whether we are justified in refusing to give you the information requested.
In response to an application for review, the Information Commissioner may, at any time, attempt to resolve a matter by negotiation, conciliation, mediation or another form of alternative dispute resolution and will have regard to any outcome of this in making any subsequent decision. More detailed information on your right to a review can be found on the Information Commissioner’s website at www.inforights.im. Should you have any queries concerning this letter, please do not hesitate to contact me. Further information about freedom of information requests can be found at www.gov.im/foi. I will now close your request as of this date.

Yours sincerely