Correspondence with the
Foreign & Commonwealth Office

Miss Robyn Craig
Records & Historical Department
Foreign & Commonwealth Office
Old Admiralty Building
London  SW1A 2PA

13 March 2002

Dear Miss Craig,

This is a request under the Code of Practice on Access to Government Information for (a) the names of staff seconded to the FCO from the private sector in the past 12 months, (b) the functions of each individual and (c) the identities of the organisations from which each has come.

A Commons PQ seeking similar information was recently refused by the Foreign Office minister Denis MacShane (26/2/02, col 1150W) on the grounds that the information was exempt under Exemption 13 of the code (commercial confidentiality) and could not be disclosed without the consent of the organisations involved.

It is difficult to see why revealing that a company is involved in a secondment to the FCO would damage that company's competitive interests. It is inconceivable that this could be so in relation to each of the 63 secondments mentioned in the Parliamentary Answer.

However, if it would be commercially damaging to reveal that a staff member had been seconded to the FCO, then there must be a serious question over the propriety of that secondment. If the company's commercial interests would be harmed by revealing that an employee is working for the FCO, this suggests that competitors, customers or foreign governments are being deceived in order to further the company's (as opposed to the country's) interests. How can this be reconciled with Mr MacShane's view that secondments involve no conflict of interest?

As you know, Exemption 13 is subject to the code's public interest test. The public interest in this issue was highlighted by the revelation in 2000 that the atomic energy counsellor in the British Embassy in Japan was a BNFL employee on secondment to the FCO. The international suspicion provoked by the news that BNFL quality control data had been falsified highlights the potential pitfalls of such relationships. Even the environment minister Michael Meacher was reportedly opposed to the BNFL secondment (Guardian 16/3/00). Unless there is openness about secondments there is no reason for the public to believe that conflicts of interest are being avoided.

Finally, can I draw your attention to the fact that:

• the FCO has itself identified companies involved in secondments in previous Parliamentary Answers (see Commons Hansard 11/2/00, col 337W) and

 

• both the Treasury and the DTI have recently identified not just the organisations but the names of the individuals on secondment as well (www.cfoi.org.uk/secondees.html).

I look forward to hearing from you within the code's 20 day response period

Yours sincerely,

Maurice Frankel
Director

Miss Robyn Craig
Records & Historical Department
Foreign & Commonwealth Office
Old Admiralty Building
London  SW1A 2PA

2 May 2002

Dear Miss Craig,

I wonder if the FCO is now in a position to respond to my letter of March 13 seeking information about staff seconded to the FCO from the private sector?

I am sorry to appear impatient, but we have been raising this issue with government since July 2000. Not only has there been a Cabinet Office review of the issue, but there have also been prolonged reviews by both the DTI and Treasury, ultimately resulting in full disclosure by both - compelling precents. I would be reluctant to wait for yet another departmental review, and am inclined instead to ask the Ombudsman to look at the issue.

Yours sincerely,

Maurice Frankel
Director

18 June 2002

Dear Mr Frankel

CODE OF PRACTICE ON ACCESS TO GOVERNMENT INFORMATION: SECONDEES TO THE FCO

I refer to your letter of 13 March requesting information on secondees under the Code of Practice and our subsequent correspondence. I am sorry that it has taken until now to provide you with a substantive reply. Please find herewith with information I have been able to collate to date.

In your request, you asked for "(a) the names of staff seconded to the FCO from the private sector in the past 12 months (b) the functions of each individual and (c) the identities of the organisations from which each has come."

Under the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA) we are obliged to seek consent of individuals to release their names and organisations in circumstances such as these. We have identified 11 individuals seconded to the FCO in the past 12 months from whom to seek consent. The following have agreed to the release of their names and organisations:

Shell have also seconded a member of their staff to the FCO but we have not been given consent to release the name of the individual concerned. To date, the other five individuals and their companies have not provided us with the consent to release the information you have requested.

All the secondees from the private sector are engaged in Commercial work overseas and I regret that we do not hold centrally any further details on their specific functions.

In your letter, you also commented on the Answer to the Commons PQ of 26 February 2002 which cited Code exemption 13 in response to a request for similar information. I have looked into this matter.

With hindsight, the refusal of some of the detailed information requested in the PQ would have been better justified by exemption 9 of the Code: it would not have been practicable to seek consent from 63 people worldwide for release of the information, especially as many of them would have completed their secondments by the time of the request, making them harder to track. As you can see from the limited information I have been able to collate for you on 11 people, we would not have been able to collate this information on 63 in the time available for answering PQs

If you are unhappy with this response, you have the right to ask us to carry out an internal review. If, after an internal review, you remain unhappy, you may make a complaint to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration (the Ombudsman) through any MP.

Robyn Craig (Miss)

Open Government

Miss Robyn Craig
Records & Historical Department
Foreign & Commonwealth Office
Old Admiralty Building
London  SW1A 2PA

26 June 2002

Dear Miss Craig,

Thank you for your letter of June 18th. I shall respond in more detail shortly but in the meantime I am writing to request two further items of information under the terms of the open government code.

1. You explained that British Trade International were responsible for seeking consent to disclose the information I requested. Could you please tell me on what date(s) BTI approached the individuals on secondment to the FCO and/or their employers to ask for this consent?

2. Could you please supply me with a copy of any letter(s) sent to the individuals/employers by BTI to ask for this consent (omitting, if necessary, any identifying details). If identical letters were sent in relation to each of the 11 secondments, then a single copy would be sufficient.

I hope it will be possible to answer this request within the code's 20 day response period.

Yours sincerely,

Maurice Frankel
Director

2 July 2002

Dear Mr Frankel

FURTHER REQUEST RELATING TO FCO SECONDEES

Thank you for your letter of 26 June making a further request relating to FCO secondees.

Please find enclosed the information we did not receive in time to include with our previous response on this matter.

With regard to the information you have now requested, I have passed your letter to British Trade International for reply as the FCO does not hold the information you require.

Yours sincerely,

Robyn Craig (Miss)
Data Protection Casework Officer
Records and Historical Department

SECONDMENTS FROM THE PRIVATE SECTOR TO THE FCO

Miss Robyn Craig
Records & Historical Department
Foreign & Commonwealth Office
Old Admiralty Building
London  SW1A 2PA

17 July 2002

Dear Miss Craig,

Open government code: request for internal review

Thank you for your letter of July 2 enclosing details of a further 5 individuals seconded to the FCO.

I am now writing to ask the FCO to review the decision (a) to not provide information about the functions of any of the seconded individuals, and (b) to withhold the identity of one individual.

1. The functions of seconded staff

In my request of March 13 I asked to be told "the functions of each individual" seconded to the FCO from the private sector in the last 12 months. Your letter of June 18 stated: "All the secondees from the private sector are engaged in Commercial work overseas and I regret that we do not hold centrally any further details on their specific functions".

I question this for the following reasons:

(a)  It seems inconceivable that FCO is using seconded staff without knowing what they do. If true, it would suggest an implausibly incompetent approach to personnel management, trade promotion and perhaps foreign policy. The implication would be that secondees are simply invited to turn up at an overseas embassy of their choice and try and make themselves useful in any capacity they fancy, without the FCO or British Trade International taking the trouble to record what they do or where.

(b)  You say that you do not hold this information "centrally". However, none of the open government code exemptions permits information to be withheld on this ground. In the improbable event that neither the FCO or BTI has reasonable access to this information, it could easily have been obtained when BTI wrote to each individual/company in connection with this request.

(c)  No other department has claimed that it does not possess such information. The DTI, for example, was able to provide the details of the names, companies and functions of 112 seconded staff, identifying several who work as export promoters overseas (see attached list). I find it difficult to believe that the FCO can't manage to keep track of just 11 individuals.

(d)  The functions of some of the staff named in your letter of June 18 can readily be obtained from the Internet. A brief search reveals that:

• David Chapman of MTL Instruments Group is Commercial Consul at the British Consulate in Osaka, Japan. 1

 

• Nick Khosla of Ove Arup is Trade Commissioner at the British Consulate in Hong Kong. 2

 

• Simon Rosenberg of EC Harris works for Trade Partners UK at the British Embassy in Doha, Qatar. 3

Are we really being asked to believe that the FCO does not know the positions of secondees such as these? In fact details of two of the above placements appear on the BTI's own "Trade Partners" web site and the third actually works for that organisation. As BTI is jointly run by the FCO and DTI the suggestion is that this information is not held by or reasonably accessible to the FCO looks absurd. The inevitable implication is that there is something to hide.

2. Indentity of remaining individual on secondment

The FCO has supplied the names of 10 of the 11 staff seconded to the FCO during the relevant period. However, in your letter of June 18 you say "Shell have also seconded a member of staff to the FCO but we have not been given consent to release the name of the individual concerned".

In your email of of May 8 you accepted that "consent to release personal data such as names is not always necessary under the DPA". This is precisely our point. After a similar request the Treasury agreed (see enclosure) to identify its secondees, in the interests of openness and accountability, even though many of them had not consented.

The main DPA issue is whether disclosure of the name is compatible with the first data protection principle. This permits the disclosure of non-sensitive personal data, if the disclosure is fair and lawful and one of the conditions in Schedule 2 of the DPA is met.

It is unlikely that it could be "unfair" to identify individuals on secondment. They are working for a government department and must expect appropriate accountability. For example, the names and identities of more senior civil servants are indentified in the Civil Service Yearbook. Those on secondment should expect a similar level of openness.

One indicator of whether disclosure is fair is whether the individual has been deceived or misled about the prospect of it occurring. 4 Presumably there is no understanding between the FCO and its secondees that the department will deliberately conceal their status and misrepresent them as permanent full-time civil servants. There is no suggestion that secondees will remain anonymous in the Cabinet Office's 'Interchange Good Practice Guide' or in the guide's model terms and conditions of employment.

This is not information which people would normally regard as sensitive - such as their medical history, family background, criminal record, creditworthiness or political affiliations.

In the past, the FCO has indentified its secondees, their companies and their functions in Parliamentary Answers (Written Answers 9/12/98, col 222-3), so I doubt that secondees would have any expectation of anonymity. Some past secondees are also identified:

• in the FCO departmental report, 5 on the Trade Partners web site and in BTI publications 6

 

• by the seconding organisations 7, 8, 9

 

• by government departments in response to previous code requests by the Campaign  10 - and in Parliamentary Answers.

I also enclose a letter from the Information Commissioner Elizabeth France, specifically relating to this issue, in which she states: "We have now advised on more than one occasion, that disclosure in these circumstances is unlikely to be 'unfair' in Data Protection Act terms."

Finally, personal data can be disclosed without consent if any of the conditions in Paragraphs 2-6 of Schedule 2 of the DPA are met. The most relevant are paragraphs 5(c) and 6(1).

Paragraph 5(c) permits disclosure where this is necessary for the exercise of a government department's functions. I suggest that it is necessary to demonstrate that the secondment process does not involve damaging conflicts of interest. Dennis MacShane highlighted this issue in his Parliamentary Answer when he stated that before a secondment can take place "all parties must be satisfied that no conflict of interest arises". 11

This is also recognised in the Cabinet Office's 'Interchange Good Practice Guide' which stresses that individuals "should ensure that in the course of their duty there is no conflict of interest that will cause embarrassment either to their organisation or to the department or agency. This is particularly important for secondments". 12

There is obvious potential for conflict of interest if private sector staff have privileged access to information that will assist in securing contracts or clients or influencing policy or regulatory decisions affecting their companies. Yet the Trade Partners web site promises alluring benefits to those taking up FCO secondments as Export Promoters:

"Working within government allows Export Promoters an unrivalled insight into the way things work and the wealth of knowledge and expertise within the public sector. It also puts them in touch with key government and private sector contacts in this country and their chosen marketets..."

"For the duration of the secondment, the Export Promoter acts as a representative of UK plc in the widest sense, not dealing in specific contracts, but making contacts and helping to shape export promotion policy and often trade association strategy through the writing of sector reports and recommendations. They make contacts at the highest level in UK and overseas governments, often getting closer to international procurers than a business person could dream of." 13

If secondees are "shaping export promotion policy" are they doing so without regard to their employers' commercial interests? Where their company is in competition with other UK companies, are they scrupulously even-handed?

As they develop their "undreamt of" closeness to procurers, do they reveal their own commercial links? If not, is that proper? If they do, why should they object to the public (or their competitors) also knowing?

In his Parliamentary Answer, Foreign Office minister Dennis MacShane refused to identify FCO secondees citing code exemption 13 which applies to information which "would harm the competitive position of a third party". I find this a staggering reply. If it would harm a company's commercial interests to reveal that its staff are working for the FCO this suggests that competitors, customers or foreign governments are being deceived in order to further the company's (as opposed to the country's) interests. When I pointed this out (my letter of March 13) the FCO withdrew the claim and substituted an alternative.

Can cat and bag be so easily reunited? The minister said the companies had a commercial interest in keeping these secondments secret and the FCO still refuses to say what any of the secondees do or where they are based or to identify one of them. I submit the public have every reason to be concerned, and that if this concern can be dispelled it is only by full disclosure. Paragraph 5(c) of Schedule 2 of the DPA provides the basis.

If a further ground is needed, Paragraph 6(1) of the Schedule, permits disclosure where this is necessary in the applicant's legitimate interests and is not unwarranted by any prejudice to the rights of the data subject. The Cabinet Office guidance on secondments states: "The general public has a right to be able to check that the government is not taking on secondees who are for some reason unsuitable or who will encounter a conflict of interest during the course of their work." This acknowledges that the public have the "legitimate interest" referred to in paragraph 6(1).

Revealing that someone is seconded to the FCO is unlikely to damage their professional reputation or employment prospects (I imagine those concerned publicise the fact of their secondment to their professional colleagues and contacts). There is no suggestion in your letter that to identify this individual would jeopardise his or her safety. It is hard to see how there could be any other prejudice to their legitimate interests let alone one sufficient to outweigh the public interest in openness.

Yours sincerely,

 

Maurice Frankel
Director

 

	Read the Information Commissioner's letter to the Campaign.

Endnotes

1. "David Chapman, Commercial Consul - West Japan, is on a three-year private sector secondment to the Foreign & Commonwealth Office. He is based at the British Consulate-General in Osaka where, in addition to investment into West Japan, he manages the Trade Partners UK Healthcare and Infrastructure Business Group. For more information on investing in the Kansai or West Japan, contact David via e-mail on: david.chapman@fco.gov.uk" http://www.tradepartners.gov.uk/overseas_trade/archive/aug2001/the_kansai.shtml"
   
   
2. "Peek Traffic also recently organised a seminar in Hong Kong at which Nick Khosla, Trade Commissioner at the British Consulate General, gave the opening speech. He welcomed nearly one hundred delegates from the Chinese government, contracting companies and individual consultants that had gathered to learn about Peek Traffic's product." http://www.tradepartners.gov.uk/success_stories/archieve_uk_region/south_east/chiltern_invadex.shtml
   
   
3. "EC Harris senior project manager Simon Rosenberg has been seconded to the British Embassy in Doha, Qatar, to advise on export opportunities for British businesses in the region prior to the Asian Games of 2006. Working for Trade Partners UK, Mr Rosenberg will be special attache to the embassy. He will research and deliver a report on export opportunities for British firms and how best they can be developed. He will also speak at a number of conferences and seminars outlining opportunities for British firms in the area. Mr Rosenberg said: "Opportunities in the region are set to soar during the run-up to the Asian Games. Some US$ 1 billion is expected to be spent in the next four years in Qatar on the Olympic-style village to host the games themselves and on the infrastructure required to support them." http://www.echarris.com/showpressrelease.asp
   
   
4. Data Protection Act 1998, Schedule 1, Part II, paragraph 1(1)
5. "David Scammell, Marketing Manager of Quantel, a leader in digital imaging for television, was seconded for six months to the British Consulate in Los Angeles to promote the British TV and film industry". FCO Departmental Report 1999.
   
   
6. "Richard Jenkins, a Business Development Manager with AMEC, has experience of the oil and gas industry - and West Africa - so he was the ideal choice for an assignment in Angola on behalf of Trade Partners UK." British Trade International, The Government's Expenditure Plans 2001-02 to 2003-04 and Main Estimates 2001-02, Cm 5123 March 2001.
   
   
7. "Judy Batt is Senior Lecturer in Central and East European Politics in the Centre for Russian and East European Studies at the University of Birmingham. She has spent a period of secondment to the Policy Planning Staff of the UK Foreign Office" http://www.crees.bham.ac.uk/staff/batt/
8. "West Coast Executive Director Linda Nowlan has accepted an eight-month secondment with the environmental policy branch of the British Government's Foreign and Commonwealth Office to work on the upcoming World Summit on Sustainable Development. Linda's leave begins January 1st and extends through to the end of the Summit scheduled for September 2002 in Johannesburg, South Africa." http://www.wcel.org/4976/27/03/08.asp
   
   
9. "As part of it's own re-evaluation, Expedite has diversified further to provide computer hardware through IT specialist, Mike McMaster, who has joined from MBL in Avonmouth. Mike was first introduced to the world of IT while serving with the Royal Navy. During a career lasting more than 20 years, he served in a wide variety of roles both ashore and at sea ensuring the smooth running of the Office Services and Systems. A three year secondment to the Foreign Office also saw him running the Defence Attache's organisation in the British Embassy in Lisbon." http://www.expedite.uk.com/flashsite/html/news/hitech.htm
   
   
10. The correspondence is available on the Campaign's web site at: http://www.cfoi.org.uk/secondees.html
    
    
11. Written Answers, 26.2.02, col 1150W
    
    
12. Interchange Good Practice Guide, Cabinet Office, January 2002.
    
    
13. http://www.tradepartners.gov.uk/epi/home/intro/index.shtml
    
    
14. See footnote 12
    
    
15. Cabinet Office, Interchange and Disclosure of Basic Information Concerning Inward Secondees (undated).

Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean
Minister of State
Foreign & Commonwealth Office
King Charles Street
London  SW1A 2AH

17 July 2002

Because of your long-standing support for freedom of information, and because British Trade International is one of your responsibilities, I thought you might take an interest in the enclosed correspondence.

Briefly, I have applied under the open government code for details of private sector staff seconded to the FCO and their functions, and I have now formally appealed against the decision to withhold some of this information.

The department has identified 10 of the 11 secondees, but says it knows nothing about what they do other than that it involves "commercial work overseas". This strikes me as pretty implausible, and my scepticism deepens on discovering that the Trade Partners' own web site identifies the specific functions of two of the 11 secondees. These turn out to be the Commercial Consul at the British Consulate at Osaka and the Trade Commissioner in the Hong Kong consulate. Yet the department maintains that it does not know what these individuals do! I cannot believe that the FCO itself or BTI do not have or could not easily discover, what role such seconded staff have - or that it does the department any credit to claim to be so remarkably ignorant about its own affairs. No other department has told us that it does not hold the equivalent information.

The other part of the appeal is for the identity of the 11th secondee, who is employed by Shell, but has apparently not consented to the release of his or her identity. I assume the department believes that it cannot provide this information because of the Data Protection Act. This is not correct: the Act does permit personal data to be disclosed without consent in various circumstances. The Treasury has accepted our arguments on this point and in the interests of accountability identified its secondees, even though most withheld their consent. It now publishes this information on its web site.

There is no real privacy interest involved in this information and no suggestion that anonymity is necessary to protect the individual's safety. On the other hand, the potential for conflict of interest is clear. It is surely not in the department's interests to give the appearance of being less than frank about the secondment programme, or to give the seconded staff themselves a right of veto over disclosures that are necessary in the interests of accountability.

Yours sincerely,

Maurice Frankel
Director

24 July 2002

Dear Mr Frankel

Thank you for your letter of 17 July requesting an internal review of our response to your request made under the Code of Practice on Access to Government Information regarding individuals seconded to British Trade International.

Since Miss Craig dealt with you request in the first instance the review will be undertaken by a different member of staff within the department. We will endeavour to respond within twenty working days.

If I can be of any further assistance please do not hesitate to contact me.

Yours sincerely,

Helen Child
Open Government

20 August 2002

Dear Mr Frankel

I am sorry that we have so far been unable to complete the internal review of the response you received to your request for information regarding individuals seconded to British Trade International.

We regret that progress has been delayed due to current staff absences and we have missed our 20 day deadline. I will keep you informed on the progress of the review, and if I can be of any further assistance please do not hesitate to contact me.

Yours sincerely,

Helen Child
Open Government
Records and Historical Department

23 September 2002

Dear Mr Frankel

SECONDEES: INTERNAL REVIEW

Further to my letter of 20 August, I am sorry that we have still not completed the internal review of the response you received to your request for information regarding individuals seconded to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

We regret that progress has been further delayed. We hope to provide a substantive response by 11 October. If I can be of any further assistance please do not hesitate to contact me.

Yours sincerely,

Helen Child
Open Government
Records and Historical Department

10 October 2002

Dear Mr Frankel

CODE OF PRACTICE ON ACCESS TO GOVERNMENT INFORMATION - SECONDEES REVIEW

Thank you for your letter of 17 July requesting an internal review of our response to your requesr made under the Code of Practice on Access to Government Information regarding individuals seconded to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

You asked for a review of the decision not to provide certain information about 11 individuals seconded to the FCO in the twelve months prior to your original request. Following the review, I am now able to release some details of the positions held by seconded staff:

Matt Evans:  BAe - British Embassy Sao Paulo: working with Trade Partners UK on a commercial project within the Investment Sector.

Jamila Burke:  British Embassy Washington: working in Science, Technology & Environment Sector - dealing with Health & Safety, including Climatic Change, issues.

Daniela Tonegatti:  Enterprise Oil: British Embassy Mexico City: working with Trade Partners UK on a commercial project in the Oil & Gas Sector.

Dr Robin Porter:   Knibb Gormezano & Partners: British Embassy Beijing working in Science and Technology Sector.

David Jones:  Rolls Royce: British High Commission Kuala Lumpur: working with Trade Partners UK on a commercial project in the High Technology Sector.

Julia Hinde:  Michael John Trust: British High Commission Ottawa working in the Science and Technology Sector.

Dr Roger Platt:  Unilever working in Environment Policy Department in London.

Simon Rosenberg:  EC Harris: British Embassy Doha: works with Trade Partners UK on a commercial project in relation to the Doha Asian Games.

David Chapman:   MTL Instruments Group; British Consulate General in Osaka; worked as Trade Commissioner: transferred to the British Embassy in Tokyo in April 2002 to work in the Commercial Section and due to finish with the Embassy at the end of October 2002.

Nick Khosla:  Ove Arup British Consulate General in Hong Kong working as Trade Commissioner

More detailed job descriptions are agreed between the jobholder and their reporting officer at the post concermed and are not held centrally.

Our review has upheld the original decision that the Data Protection Act 1998 inhibits the release of further information about the officer seconded from Shell, as consent to disclosure has been withheld. We have reconfirmed during this review that consent is still withheld. We also consider that exemption 12 of the Code of Practice applies.

If you are unhappy with this response you may make a complaint to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration (the Ombudsman) through any MP.

Yours sincerely,

Mrs R Cox
Records and Historical Department

Mike Percy
Open Government Section
Foreign & Commonwealth Office
Old Admiralty Building
London  SW1A 2PA

7 November 2002

Dear Mike

As you may know, the FCO has recently completed its internal review of an open government request I made for information about private sector secondees.

In the course of this, I made the separate open government request on June 26. I have not had a reply and I'm not sure that I've even had an acknowledgement.

I am still interested in the information, and in particular the copies of any letters seeking consent to release information to me that were sent to (a) the individuals concerned and (b) their employers.

I'd be grateful if you could see whether this one could now be speeded up!

Yours sincerely,

Maurice Frankel
Director