Request
Please can you share the details around any live Wide Area Network, Voice Services, Unified Communications, Mobile Devices, Data Centres, Cloud or Cyber contracts? Including the following details: Start and end dates of the contract Incumbent supplier Contract Title & Description (and a Contracts Finder link where possible) If the contract was a call-off, the framework used to award it If this is outside the scope of the FOIA, or if the time required to answer the full request exceeds the limit specified, please answer what you can and advise and assist on the best way to uncover the remaining information.
Outcome
Information withheld.
Response
The scope of your request for ‘the details around’ is too broad for us to respond within the appropriate limits defined under Section 12 of the Act, and although you do request specific elements of contractual information, ‘details around’ any live contract valued under £10,000 plus VAT would expose commercially sensitive information, and as such is exempt under Section 43 (2) of the FOI Act. Information regarding specific start and end dates is also exempt under Section 31 (1) (a) of the FOI Act.
Information regarding our contracts valued over £10,000 plus VAT is exempt under Section 21 of the FOI Act as it is already in the public domain. To assist you in locating this information, please review the links below:
Tenders and contracts – The National Archives
Contracts Finder
To assist you with locating the contractual information, which is already available in the public sphere, please review these links to our published FOI below:
ICT Contracts – Freedom of Information
The National Archives’ Cloud Services – Freedom of Information
Contact centre, CRM, AI & automation – Freedom of Information
Telephony/UC, Microsoft and Storage – Freedom of Information
Hosting contracts – Freedom of Information
IT contracts – Freedom of Information
IT systems and spend – Freedom of Information
Mobile telephone contracts – Freedom of Information
Mobile phone contracts – Freedom of Information
Call-off contracts – Freedom of Information
Explanatory Annexe
Exemptions applied
Section 43 (2) – Commercial Interests
This section exempts information whose disclosure would be likely to prejudice the commercial interests of any person. In this case, the exemption applies because it would be likely to harm or prejudice the commercial interests of our current and potential future suppliers.
Section 43 (2) 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 must be release. In the FOIA there is a presumption that information should be released unless there are compelling reasons to withhold it.
Considerations in favour of the release of the information included The National Archives’ commitment to openness and transparency in its commercial activities, to allow public scrutiny and to demonstrate that public funds are being used in an efficient and effective way. Furthermore private sector companies engaging in commercial activities with the public sector must expect some information about those activities to be disclosed.
Considerations against disclosure included the recognition that disclosure is likely to provide information to direct competitors within the market that would create an imbalance and a commercial advantage to those competitors. Furthermore disclosure of this information is also likely to affect The National Archives’ ability to negotiate contracts in the future and consequently generate revenue from non-public funds. It is also considered that disclosure would be likely to deter potential bidders for future contracts from competing and sharing commercially sensitive information with us. This would outweigh any benefits of release. It was therefore decided that the balance of the public interest lies clearly in favour of withholding the material on this occasion
Further guidance can be found at:
Section 43 – Commercial interests | ICO
Section 21: Information readily available to the applicant by other means
Section 21 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) does not oblige a public authority to provide information if it is already reasonably accessible by other means. In this case the exemption applies because the information is already available.
Further guidance can be found at:
Information accessible to the applicant by other means (section 21) | ICO
Section 31: Law Enforcement
We are unable to provide you with information regarding contract dates, software/hardware brands, suppliers and details of our infrastructure 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 can be found at:
Law enforcement (section 31) | ICO