Request
Please can you send me the following contract information with regards to the organisation’s telephone system maintenance contract (VOIP or PBX, other) for hardware and Software maintenance and support if all the information is still the same besides the contracts dates please send just the new contract dates. It would be much appreciated.
1. Contract Type: Maintenance, Managed, shared (If so, please state orgs).
2. Existing Supplier: If there is more than one supplier, please split each contract up individually.
3. Annual Average Spend: The annual average spends for this contract and please provide the average spend over the past 3 years for each provider.
4. Hardware Brand: The primary hardware brand of the organisation’s telephone system.
5. Number of telephone users
6. Contract Duration: please include any extension periods.
7. Contract Expiry Date: Please provide me with the day/month/year
8. Contract Review Date: Please provide me with the day/month/year.
9. Application(s) running on PBX/VOIP systems: Applications that run on the actual PBX or VOIP system. E.g., Contact Centre, Communication Manager.
10. Telephone System Type: PBX, VOIP, Lync etc
11. Contract Description: Please provide me with a brief description of the overall service provided under this contract.
12. Go to Market: How where these services procured, please provide me with either the tender notice or the framework reference number. Please specify if procured through other routes.
13. Contact Detail: Of the person from within the organisation responsible for each contract full Contact details including full name, job title, direct contact number and direct email address.
14. If this is a new contract or a new supplier, please can you provide me with a short list of suppliers that bid on this service/support contract?
Outcome
Partially successful.
Response
1. Contract Type: Maintenance, Managed, shared (If so, please state orgs).
Co-managed.
2. Existing Supplier: If there is more than one supplier, please split each contract up individually.
This information is covered by the exemption at Section 21 of the FOI Act. Information about all contracts with a value over £10,000 are published in the public domain, and can be found at https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/57e2002c-88d5-4b7f-bae9-ce46f1ee5415.
3. Annual Average Spend: The annual average spends for this contract and please provide the average spend over the past 3 years for each provider.
Annual average spend is £75,000. This is a new contract and we do not hold information about the last three years.
4. Hardware Brand: The primary hardware brand of the organisation’s telephone system.
Information regarding specific hardware brands is exempt under section 31 (1) (a) of the FOI Act.
5. Number of telephone users:
650.
6. Contract Duration: please include any extension periods.
This information is covered by the exemption at Section 21 of the FOI Act. Information about all contracts with a value over £10,000 are published in the public domain, and can be found at https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/57e2002c-88d5-4b7f-bae9-ce46f1ee5415.
7. Contract Expiry Date: Please provide me with the day/month/year
This information is covered by the exemption at Section 21 of the FOI Act. Information about all contracts with a value over £10,000 are published in the public domain, and can be found at https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/57e2002c-88d5-4b7f-bae9-ce46f1ee5415.
8. Contract Review Date: Please provide me with the day/month/year.
We do not hold this information.
9. Application(s) running on PBX/VOIP systems: Applications that run on the actual PBX or VOIP system. E.g., Contact Centre, Communication Manager.
Contact Centre
VoIP Client
10. Telephone System Type: PBX, VOIP, Lync etc
VoIP
11. Contract Description: Please provide me with a brief description of the overall service provided under this contract.
Maintenance of the VoIP cloud service and on site equipment.
12. Go to Market: How where these services procured, please provide me with either the tender notice or the framework reference number. Please specify if procured through other routes.
This information is covered by the exemption at Section 21 of the FOI Act. Information about all contracts with a value over £10,000 are published in the public domain, and can be found at https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/57e2002c-88d5-4b7f-bae9-ce46f1ee5415.
13. Contact Detail: Of the person from within the organisation responsible for each contract full Contact details including full name, job title, direct contact number and direct email address.
We are unable to provide you with this information because it would identify junior members 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: https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/contact-us/.
14. If this is a new contract or a new supplier, please can you provide me with a short list of suppliers that bid on this service/support contract?
This information is covered by the exemption at section 43 (2) of the FOI Act.
EXPLANATORY ANNEX
Exemptions applied
Section 31: Law enforcement
We are unable to provide you with information regarding software brands and specific contract start/end dates 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 is 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 IT systems. 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 .
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 reasonably accessible to the applicant by other means (section 21) (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 a junior member 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:
s40 Personal_information_(section_40_and_regulation_13)_version2.3 (ico.org.uk).
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.