It's still a secret

BBC HR thought-leader Valerie Hughes D'Aeth may be eminently qualified to lecture colleagues in other companies on "The People Function of The Future", but the department she runs at the present is playing fast and loose with Freedom of Information legislation.

Almost nine months ago, an enquirer asked for the number of staff employed by each division, broken down by pay grade - information shared without demur over the previous three years. Only this time, the BBC said no to the request, claiming the data would be in the Annual Report. It wasn't.

After one request for an internal review of this refusal foundered somewhere inside the BBC, Nicola McCain, the BBC's Head of Legal: Freedom of Information & Contentious Data Protection, (Arnold School, Blackpool, Brunel and UCL) finally agreed that the defence of "wider publication imminent" had fallen, and said the BBC should cough up the figures within 20 days. That was on August 21st.