Butter wouldn't melt....

The BBC's Information Policy and Compliance Team are getting a little cocky.

The resolute and persistent Spencer Count found pages on the website of The Leadership Foundation for Higher Education, which carried a case study of a BBC HR process that mapped 3,000 managers into a nine-box grid, according to their performance and potential, or lack of both. Shortly after Mr Count's enquiry seeking further details from the BBC, the pages disappeared from the website. But they still could be found via a Google cache.

Now, spookily, those cached pages have gone, too. And the BBC writes to Mr Count, chuckling behind its hand, "In order to identify and locate the information that you have asked for we need you to clarify it further. The link you have provided below is no longer valid. Please can you respond with a valid link."

Misdirection, m'lud. If Mr Count wishes to provide a link to my original piece, as honest a piece of reporting as you can expect from a BBC pensioner, I'm happy. They can't kill my posts, can they ?

Anyway, the question still stands, and doesn't need clarification - did the BBC carry out such a piece of "talent mapping", and what records and data do they hold ?  Or are they going to pretend they can keep it between themselves and 3,000 staff ?