Received: 28 February 2024

1, Can you please tell me what the annual salary is for our CEO Mr Mukund krishna?

2, Can you tell me what bonuses he is being paid and total value of bonus payments to date while in post?

3, can you give me details of the recruitment process used by PFEW in order to recruit the CEO? Where was the post advertised ?

4, How many people applied for the position of CEO for the PFEW?

5, Who was on the interview panel when Mr krishna was interviewed?

6, I also respectfully request a copy of the current financial accounts of PFEW.

Responded: 26 March 2024

RESPONSE 1

The PFEW holds data relating to the salary details of its Chief Executive Officer ("CEO"), but withholds it under Section 22 of the Freedom of Information Act ("FOIA"): 'information intended for future publication'. 

1. The PFEW decided that, in the interests of transparency,  it would be appropriate to publish the details of its CEO's salary, alongside details of the salary ranges of other senior members of staff within the organisation.  
2. The PFEW is currently in the process of determining what information to publish in this regard, and in particular which other individuals' compensation details to publish alongside this information, and which other contextual information. The precise information to be published has not yet been determined, nor has the date for publication.  
3. The requested information therefore falls within the scope of Section 22, and accordingly the PFEW is required to determine whether it would be "reasonable in all the circumstances that the information should be withheld from disclosure until the date [of publication]". 
4. The PFEW considers that it is reasonable to withhold the requested information until it is formally published. This is on the basis that: 

 a. The PFEW intends to publish the requested information alongside other information, including the salary ranges of other senior members of staff and other contextual information. The PFEW believes that it is reasonable to withhold the requested information until such time as it has been determined what information to publish alongside this, and that the PFEW should be given appropriate time to determine this.  

b.Furthermore, it is reasonable for the PFEW to control the publication of information, out of fairness to those whose information is due to be revealed.  

c. The PFEW does not rely on the exemption in Section 40 of FOIA (personal information) in response to the request, yet this exemption remains a live consideration. A request for details of the CEO's salary is undoubtedly a request for personal data relating to that individual within the meaning of Article 4(1) of the UK General Data Protection Regulation ("UK GDPR") (as supplemented by the Data Protection Act 2018). Information about other individuals' salaries also constitutes their personal data. Whilst there is an ongoing process within the PFEW to determine the process for publishing details of salaries, it would be unfair to those individuals to disclose such details until that process has taken its proper course. 

5. Accordingly, the PFEW considers that the grounds for withholding the requested information under Section 22 are made out.  

6. As to the question of "public interest": that is, whether the public interest in maintaining the exemption is greater than the public interest in disclosing the information now, the PFEW considers that the public interest in maintaining the Section 22 exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosure. This is on the basis that: 

a. Whilst it is accepted that, in general terms, there is a public interest in the details of certain salaries/salary ranges being known, the public interest is best served by this information being published in a fair and contextualised manner, as the PFEW intends. There is also a public interest in allowing public bodies to rely on Section 22, particularly in circumstances where this allows them further time to determine how to present the relevant information (as the PFEW is now in the process of deciding).  

b. The PFEW also considers that the factors relied on in paragraph 4 above add weight to the public interest in it being able to rely on Section 22, in particular that the PFEW does intend on publishing the requested information at a future date. 

RESPONSE 2

The PFEW holds data relating to the bonus details of its CEO, but withholds it under Section 22 of the FOIA: 'information intended for future publication'.  

The information contained in response to Request 1 is also applicable to this request for information. For all of the reasons given in response to Request 1, the PFEW is satisfied that, in all the circumstances, it is reasonable that the requested information should be withheld from disclosure until the date of publication. 

RESPONSE 3

The CEO was appointed by the National Board. This was a change in role from Chief Operations Officer ("COO") to CEO, not a new vacancy, therefore it was not advertised. This took account of a change to the reporting structure and better reflects the responsibilities of the role. 

RESPONSE 4

Please see response to Request 3.

RESPONSE 5

Please see response to Request 3.

RESPONSE 6

The PFEW publishes its financial accounts on its website. Whilst the PFEW is entitled to rely on Section 21 of FOIA ('information accessible by other means') to withhold the requested information from disclosure, to be helpful, the PFEW's published accounts can be found at the following link:https://www.polfed.org/resources/reports/accounts/