Recruitment of ScotRail Trains Chief Operating Officer: FOI release

Information requested

Regarding the recruitment of Mrs Joanne Maguire as ScotRail Trains Chief Operating Officer
1. Was this recruitment conducted by an external recruiter, and if so, what were the costs involved in this.

2. How many candidates were considered for this position.

3. Please provide any ministerial briefings or emails to ministers relating to the appointment of Mrs Maguire.

4.Please can you provide the breakdown of Mrs Maguire's remuneration by: basic salary, bonus, pension and any other benefits such as car allowance or private healthcare.

Response

1. Transport Scotland understand that Badenoch + Clark were engaged by Abellio ScotRail to assist in the process of recruiting Mrs Maguire to the post of COO.

An exemption under section 33(1)(b) of FOISA (substantial prejudice to confidentiality of commercial information) applies to the cost information you have requested. This exemption applies because disclosure of this particular information would, or would be likely to, prejudice substantially the confidentiality of Badenoch + Clark.

Disclosing this information would be likely to give Badenoch + Clark’s competitors an advantage in future work tendering exercises and in turn harm Badenoch + Clark’s commercial business. This exemption is subject to the ‘public interest test’. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption.

We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption. We recognise that there is a public interest in disclosing information as part of open and transparent government, and to help account for the expenditure of public money. However, there is a greater public interest in protecting the commercial interests of companies which enter into contracts with our rail Franchisees, in this instance Abellio ScotRail.

2. While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not hold the information you have requested.

This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information that you have requested as it was not responsible for undertaking the recruitment for the position of COO and as such does not hold how many candidates were considered. However, you may wish to contact Abellio ScotRail for this information.

3. All documents relating to number 3 question above are contained within Annex A. You will see that some of the information has been redacted in line with the following FOISA exemption:-

Section 38 (1) (b) – Third party data
An exemption under section 38(1)(b) of FOISA (personal information) applies to some of the information requested because it is personal data of a third party, i.e. names and contact details of individuals and companies, and disclosing it would contravene the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation and in section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018.

This exemption is not subject to the ‘public interest test’, so we are not required to consider if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption.

4. The salary information relating to the COO appointment is personally confidential information pertaining to an employee of Abellio ScotRail Ltd and therefore is withheld against exemption Section 38 (1) (b) – Third party data.

As above, an exemption under section 38(1)(b) of FOISA (personal information) applies to some of the information requested because it is personal data of a third party, i.e. names and contact details of individuals and companies, and disclosing it would contravene the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation and in section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018.

This exemption is not subject to the ‘public interest test’, so we are not required to consider if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption.

Once the COO becomes a public sector employee and in line with the Scottish Public Finance Manual, details of the COO’s remuneration will be published in due course within Scottish Rail Holdings’ year end accounts. These accounts will be published on Transport Scotland’s website once audited and laid before Parliament.

About FOI
The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.

FOI202100266556 - Annex A

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2 page PDF

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80.8 kB