Request
Contact Centre
a. Do you have a customer/ citizen facing contact centre? If not please skip these questions.
b. Do you employ and manage your own agents, or do you outsource to a third party? If you outsource who to?
c. How many contact centre agents do you have?
d. Do agents work from home? Or just your offices?
e. Please confirm the manufacturer of your contact centre system(s) that are currently in place?
f. When is your contract renewal date?
g. Who maintains your contact centre system(s)?
CRM
a. Do you use a CRM in the contact centre? What platform is used?
b. Do you use the same CRM for the rest of the organisation? What platform is used?
c. Do you use a knowledge base / knowledge management platform? What platform is used?
AI & Automation
a. Does your organisation have a customer or citizen facing chatbot? If so, who provides this chatbot technology?
b. Does your organisation utilise RPA technology? If so which RPA technology provider do you use?
Outcome
Successful.
Response
1. Contact Centre
a. Do you have a customer/ citizen facing contact centre? If not please skip these questions.
No.
b. Do you employ and manage your own agents, or do you outsource to a third party? If you outsource who to?
N/A
c. How many contact centre agents do you have?
N/A
d. Do agents work from home? Or just your offices?
N/A
e. Please confirm the manufacturer of your contact centre system(s) that are currently in place?
N/A
f. When is your contract renewal date?
N/A
g. Who maintains your contact centre system(s)?
N/A
2. CRM
a. Do you use a CRM in the contact centre? What platform is used?
Yes, we use a CRM for contact management.
Disclosing software and hardware brands and suppliers may reveal information that would prejudice the prevention or detection of crime and is exempt under section 31 (1) (a) of the FOI Act.
b. Do you use the same CRM for the rest of the organisation? What platform is used?
Yes.
Disclosing software and hardware brands and suppliers may reveal information that would prejudice the prevention or detection of crime and is exempt under section 31 (1) (a) of the FOI Act.
c. Do you use a knowledge base / knowledge management platform? What platform is used?
No.
3. AI & Automation
a. Does your organisation have a customer or citizen facing chatbot? If so, who provides this chatbot technology?
Yes, we have a customer facing chatbot.
Disclosing software and hardware brands and suppliers may reveal information that would prejudice the prevention or detection of crime and is exempt under section 31 (1) (a) of the FOI Act.
b. Does your organisation utilise RPA technology? If so which RPA technology provider do you use?
No.
Explanatory annex
Exemptions applied
Section 31: Law Enforcement
We are unable to provide you with information regarding software brands and suppliers because this information is exempt from disclosure under section 31(1) (a) of the FOI Act. Section 31(1) (a) exempts information if its disclosure would or would be likely to prejudice the prevention or detection of crime.
Section 31 is a qualified exemption and we are required to conduct a public interest test when applying any qualified exemption. This means that after it has been decided that the exemption is engaged, the public interest in releasing the information must be considered. If the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in withholding it then the exemption does not apply and the information must be released. In the FOI Act there is a presumption that information should be released unless there are compelling reasons to withhold it.
The public interest has now been concluded and the balance of the public interest has been found to fall in favour of withholding information covered by the section 31(1)(a) exemption. Considerations in favour of the release of the information included the principle that there is a public interest in transparency and accountability in disclosing information about government cyber security. However, release of this information would make The National Archives more vulnerable to crime. The crime in question here would be a malicious attack on The National Archives’ computer systems. As such release of this information would be seen to prejudice the prevention or detection of crime by making The National Archives’ computer system more vulnerable to hacking. There is an overwhelming public interest in keeping government computer systems secure which would be served by non-disclosure. This would outweigh any benefits of release. It has therefore been decided that the balance of the public interest lies clearly in favour of withholding the material on this occasion.
Further guidance on section 31 can be found here: https://ico.org.uk/media/for-organisations/documents/1207/law-enforcement-foi-section-31.pdf