Request
Contract 1 – contact centre/call centre contracts
Please send me the following information for each provider:
- Incumbent Supplier: For each of the contract(s) please can you provide me with the supplier of the contract.
- Annual Average Spend: the annual average (over 3 years) spends for each supplier.
- Contract Expiry: the date of when the contract expires.
- Contract Review: the date of when the contract will be reviewed.
- Contract Description: a brief description of the services provided of the overall contract.
- Contact Details: The person from within the organisation responsible for the contract. Please provide me with their full name, actual job title, contact number and direct email address.
- Number of Agents; please provide me with the total number of contact centre agents.
- Number of Sites; please can you provide me with the number of sites the contact centre covers.
- Manufacturer of the contact centre: Who is the manufacturer of the contact centre system that you operate?
- Busy Periods: Please state the month(s) which the contact centre is at its highest/busiest during the year. This can be based upon the number of calls. Your provider may be able to tell you quicker. E.g., JAN-MAR, APR, JUNE.
- Do you use Microsoft Exchange 2003 as your email server? If not, then which product do you use?
- Number of email users: Approximate number of email users across the organisations.
Please add any further comments attached to this contract if there are any changes coming to the organisation with regards to contact centres.
The second part of my request relates to the use inbound network services contracts which could relate to one of the following:
- 0800, 0845, 0870, 0844, 0300 number
- Routing of calls
- Caller Identifier
- Caller Profile- linking caller details with caller records
- Interactive voice response (IVR)
For contract relating to the above please can you provide me with?
- Incumbent Supplier: For each of the contract(s) please can you provide me with the supplier of the contract.
- Annual Average Spend: the annual average (over 3 years) spends for each supplier.
- Contract Expiry: the date of when the contract expires.
- Contract Review: the date of when the contract will be reviewed.
- Contract Description: a brief description of the services provided of the overall contract.
- Contact Details: The person from within the organisation responsible for the contract. Please provide me with their full name, actual job title, contact number and direct email address.
Outcome
Some information provided.
Response
Contract 1 – contact centre/call centre contracts
Please send me the following information for each provider:
1. Incumbent Supplier: For each of the contract(s) please can you provide me with the supplier of the contract.
2. Annual Average Spend: the annual average (over 3 years) spends for each supplier.
3. Contract Expiry: the date of when the contract expires.
4. Contract Review: the date of when the contract will be reviewed.
5. Contract Description: a brief description of the services provided of the overall contract.
6. Contact Details: The person from within the organisation responsible for the contract. Please provide me with their full name, actual job title, contact number and direct email address.
7. Number of Agents; please provide me with the total number of contact centre agents.
8. Number of Sites; please can you provide me with the number of sites the contact centre covers.
9. Manufacturer of the contact centre: Who is the manufacturer of the contact centre system that you operate?
10. Busy Periods: Please state the month(s) which the contact centre is at its highest/busiest during the year. This can be based upon the number of calls. Your provider may be able to tell you quicker. E.g., JAN-MAR, APR, JUNE.
In respect to Questions 1 – 10 above, we do not operate a Contact or Call Centre and, therefore, do not have contracts.
11. Do you use Microsoft Exchange 2003 as your email server? If not, then which product do you use?
Disclosing hardware and software brands may reveal information that would prejudice the prevention or detection of crime and is exempt under section 31 (1) (a) of the FOI Act.
12. Number of email users: Approximate number of email users across the organisations.
Approximately 700 email users.
Please add any further comments attached to this contract if there are any changes coming to the organisation with regards to contact centres.
We do not hold information relating to this.
The second part of my request relates to the use inbound network services contracts which could relate to one of the following:
1. 0800, 0845, 0870, 0844, 0300 number
2. Routing of calls
3. Caller Identifier
4. Caller Profile- linking caller details with caller records
5. Interactive voice response (IVR)
For contract relating to the above please can you provide me with?
1. Incumbent Supplier: For each of the contract(s) please can you provide me with the supplier of the contract.
2. Annual Average Spend: the annual average (over 3 years) spends for each supplier
3. Contract Expiry: the date of when the contract expires.
In respect to Questions 1 – 3 above, information about all contracts and agreements with a value over £10,000 are published in the public domain and is covered by the exemption at Section 21 of the FOI Act. The information is already published in the public domain as per the link below:
Unified Communications – Contracts Finder
4. Contract Review: the date of when the contract will be reviewed.
We do not hold this information
5. Contract Description: a brief description of the services provided of the overall contract.
Information about all contracts and agreements with a value over £10,000 are published in the public domain and is covered by the exemption at Section 21 of the FOI Act. The information is already published in the public domain as per the link below:
Unified Communications – Contracts Finder
6. Contact Details: The person from within the organisation responsible for the contract. Please provide me with their full name, actual job title, contact number and direct email address
We are unable to provide you with this information because it would identify a junior member of staff and as such is exempt from release under section 40 (2) of the FOI Act. However, at The National Archives we apply the general principle that members of staff at Head of Department level and above are sufficiently senior for their names and/or job titles to already be in the public domain and are therefore not exempt from release.
The Head of IT Operations at The National Archives is Julian Muller.
The National Archives’ full contact options can be found on our website here: Contact us – Contact us (nationalarchives.gov.uk).
EXPLANATORY ANNEX
Section 31: Law Enforcement
We are unable to provide you with information regarding software or hardware brands 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:
law-enforcement-foi-section-31.pdf (ico.org.uk).
Section 40 (2): Personal Information where the applicant is not the data subject
Data Protection Legislation prevents personal information from release if it would be unfair or at odds with the reason why it was collected, or where the subject had officially served notice that releasing it would cause them damage or distress.
In this case the exemption applies because this information represents the personal information of junior members of staff at The National Archives.
Publishing the names and contact details of junior members of staff is considered an unfair use of personal data. Junior members of staff would have no expectation that information about their positions would be made available in the public domain; to do so would be unfair and contravene Art. 5 of the General Data Protection Regulation. As such, the names, positions and contact details of junior officials are withheld under section 40 (2) of the FOI Act.
Further guidance can be found at:
Personal data of both the requester and others (ico.org.uk).
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:
Section 21 – Information readily available to the applicant by other means (ICO.org.uk).