ONS recruitment

You asked

​I am writing in order to request information regarding the below:

1. In last 2 years has your organisation used external recruitment agencies to hire for permanent or contract roles?
2. In list format what are the five highest paid external recruitment agencies with the total amount paid in the last 2 years?
3. What is the fee structure charged for the five highest paid vacancies by the above five external recruitment agencies and the roles that were hired for? Example: Office Manager - Salary £20,000 Fees paid 15% of salary = Total recruitment fees paid £3000.
4. For the coming year what live vacancies does the organisation currently have for permanent or contract roles, please list these vacancies with the following;

• Current or future positions and an exact salary figure
• What type of positions are they? (Contract or Permanent)
• Who is the hiring manager, please provide their full details: Full name, Telephone number, Email, Job Title and Department

1. On which websites are these jobs advertised? Please clearly provide a link/list to where these jobs are advertised.
2. What is the process to selecting new recruitment agencies? Please provide the procurement process for selecting new recruitment agencies and what date is this conducted and by whom? Please provide full contact details.
3. Is there a purchase threshold below which allows the organisation to use external recruitment agencies which are not on any preferred supplier arrangements or contracts without going through a formal tender process?

We said

1. In last 2 years has your organisation used external recruitment agencies to hire for permanent or contract roles?

Yes, the ONS has used external recruitment agencies to hire for permanent and contract roles

2. In list format what are the five highest paid external recruitment agencies with the total amount paid in the last 2 years?

3. What is the fee structure charged for the five highest paid vacancies by the above five external recruitment agencies and the roles that were hired for? Example: Office Manager - Salary £20,000 Fees paid 15% of salary = Total recruitment fees paid £3000.

Unfortunately, we would be unable to disclose details of the supplier's bid (percentage of fees paid) in response to your Freedom of Information request. We believe that the disclosure of this information would prejudice future tenders in which the suppliers are involved. Therefore, this information is exempt according to Section 43 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, whereby a Public Authority may not disclose information which would, or be likely to, prejudice the commercial interests of any person.

This exemption is subject to a public interest test. We recognise the desirability of information being freely available. However, we also acknowledge the importance of open and fair competition for companies at tender. Disclosure of the requested information would compromise our relationships with the companies we work with which would likely render them unwilling to work with us in the future. This could further prejudice our ability to conduct tender and procurement exercises efficiently in the future. This would impact our ability to carry out our functions to produce statistics in the public good which are essential in the formulation of government policy. As a result, the protection of our commercial interests outweighs the public interest in disclosure.

We would also be unable to advise an exact salary figure. This would be considered personal information and therefore is exempt under Section 40 (2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA).

Please see the attachment accompanying this request for list of vacancies with its advertised salary bands.

All the vacancies below are at the G7 grade. The salary advertised for the contractor roles is £49,100 - £59,299

Parity Resource Limited

Project Manager

Product Manager

Commercial Manager

Project Manager

Product Manager

La International

IT Contractor

Data Architect

IT Contractor

Business Analyst

IT Contractor

Certes Computing Ltd

Security Advisor

IT Contractor

Business Architect

Data Architect

IT Contractor

Concept Information Technology Ltd

Senior Quality Lead

IT Contractor

Tester

Data Architect  

IT Contractor

LA FOSSE Associates

Business Analyst

Bid Manager

Business Architect

IT Contractor

Data Architect

4. For the coming year what live vacancies does the organisation currently have for permanent or contract roles, please list these vacancies with the following:

Current or future positions and an exact salary figure

We would be unable to advise an exact salary figure. This would be considered personal information and therefore is exempt under Section 40 (2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA). Please see the attachment accompanying this request. This includes the current roles showing minimum salary band.  Future positions are yet to be determined and therefore not held.

- What type of positions are they? (Contract or Permanent)

Please see attachment accompanying this request.

- Who is the hiring manager, please provide their full details: Full name, Telephone number, Email, Job Title and Department

We would be unable to share details of the hiring manager. This would be considered personal information and therefore is exempt under Section 40 (2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA).

5. In which websites are these jobs advertised? Please clearly provide a link/list to where these jobs are advertised.

Please see attachment accompanying this request. Details of where vacancies were advertised can be found on column K on the spreadsheet or if agency roles websites used are controlled by agency.

6. What is the process to selecting new recruitment agencies? Please provide the procurement process for selecting new recruitment agencies and what date is this conducted and by whom? Please provide full contact details.

The ONS Commercial department run a tendering exercise to select a preferred list of suppliers (PSL) for Contingent Labour through CCS frameworks, utilizing the approach as defined in the relevant framework.  In addition, where the PSL does not return any suitable candidates, ONS can approach specialist agencies from CCS frameworks for candidates on an ad hoc process. A new procurement exercise is anticipated to be run in 2021/2022, but the commercial strategy and timelines for this have not been finalised.

7. Is there a purchase threshold below which allows the organisation to use external recruitment agencies which are not on any preferred supplier arrangements or contracts without going through a formal tender process?

All Agencies are engaged via a pre agreed framework agreement. As above, we can approach specialist agencies there is no value threshold to this.