Recruitment process for Chief Pharmaceutical Officer post: FOI release

Information requested

The following information in relation to the recruitment of the Scottish Government Chief Pharmaceutical Officer:

1) The number of applicants for the post.

2) The number of people shortlisted for the post.

3) The number of people who attended interview for the post.

4) The job titles of those on the interview panel for the post.

5) The salary the post holder was placed on (bands of £5k are acceptable).

Response

1. There were five applications for the post.

2. Two candidates were shortlisted.

3. Two candidates attended interview.

4. The titles of the panel members were:

• Chief Medical Officer, Scotland
• Chief Pharmaceutical Officer, UK Government
• Director of COVID-19 Public Health, Scottish Government
• Director, HR consultant, Scottish Government
• Deputy Director Internal Audit and Assurance, Scottish Government

5. The Chief Pharmaceutical Officer is a Senior Civil Service Pay Band 1 role and was advertised with a starting salary of £77,340. Salaries for staff in this grade typically range from £77,340 to £83,233. The Scottish Government does not disclose information in £5k bands for staff at Senior Civil Service Pay Band 1 level as this is considered to be personal data. This is formal notification that 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 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.

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.