Request
I want to make a Freedom of Information request, could you please send me the following information with regards to the organisation’s Mobile Phones contract.
You may have received the same request in the past and this information sent has now expired and I require an update as soon as possible for the following information:
If there is more than one provider, please split all the information including the annual average spend, number of connections, duration, contract dates and internal contact details.
1. Network Provider(s) – Please provide me with the network provider name e.g., EE, Telefonica, Vodafone, Three
2. Annual Average Spend for each Network Provider – If this is a new contract, can you please provide the estimated annual spend.
3. Number of Connections- Number of connections for each network provider. (Number of voices only devices, voice and data devices, data only devices) please provide me with the breakdown and not the overall total.
4. Duration of the contract- please state if the contract also includes contract extensions for each provider.
5. Contract Start Date- please can you provide me with the start date of the signed agreement. Please do not provide me with the framework contract date I require the contract dates of the signed agreement. (if there are multiple start dates, could you please provide me with the earliest date for each provider)
6. Contract Expiry Date- please can you provide me with the expiry date of the signed agreement. Please do not provide me with the framework contract date. I require the contract dates of the signed agreement. If the contract is rolling, please state.
7. Contract Review Date- Please can you provide me with a date when the organisation plans to review this contract.
8. The person in the organisation responsible for this particular contract. Can you send me the full contact details Contact Name, Job Title, Contact Number and direct email address for each network provider? If full contact details cannot be provided, please send me their actual job title.
9.If the mobile phone contract is provided by a managed contract, please provide me with the actual name of the network provider along with the number of connections and the internal contact from within the organisation responsible for this contract.
10. Is this contract part of an aggregation exercise?
Please can you provide me with the latest information- If the organisations are currently out to tender, please can you also state the approx. date of the award along with the information above.
Also, if the contract in the response has expired/rolling please can you provide me with further information if available of the organisation’s plans going forward with regards to mobiles and the contract status?
If this contract was awarded within the past three months, can you please provide me with a shortlist of suppliers that bid on the contract?
Outcome
Some information provided.
Response
1. The National Archive’s network provider is EE.
2. Our average annual spend is £13,200 plus VAT.
3. The National Archives only utilises a voice and data option which features 160 connections.
4. Information about all contracts and agreements with a value of over £10,000 are published in the public domain and is covered by the exemption at Section 21 of the FOI Act. This information is already published in the public domain as per the below link: https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/notice/b5dd933e-afd3-4f3f-a528-234aac192723?origin=SearchResults&p=1.
5. Information about all contracts and agreements with a value of over £10,000 are published in the public domain and is covered by the exemption at Section 21 of the FOI Act. This information is already published in the public domain as per the below link: https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/notice/b5dd933e-afd3-4f3f-a528-234aac192723?origin=SearchResults&p=1.
6. Information about all contracts and agreements with a value of over £10,000 are published in the public domain and is covered by the exemption at Section 21 of the FOI Act. This information is already published in the public domain as per the below link: https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/notice/b5dd933e-afd3-4f3f-a528-234aac192723?origin=SearchResults&p=1.
7. We do not hold this information.
8. We are unable to provide you with the name, full contact details, or the job title of the person responsible for the maintenance support contracts because release of this information would identify a junior member of staff, as such this information is exempt from release under section 40 (2) (Personal Data) of the FOI Act. However, we have applied 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, as such their information is not considered exempt under section 40(2). We can therefore confirm that the Head of the responsible department for this contract is the Head of IT Operations at The National Archives, David Moore.
9. Our mobile phone contract is provided by a managed contract. Please see above for answers regarding our network provider, number of connections and internal contact information.
10. No, this contract is not part of an aggregation exercise.
11. Not Applicable.
12. Not Applicable.
13. Not Applicable.
Explanatory Annexe
Exemptions applied
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:
https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/foi/freedom-of-information-and-environmental-information-regulations/section-21-information-accessible-to-the-applicant-by-other-means/.
Section 40(2): Personal Information where the applicant is not the data subject
Section 40 exempts personal information about a ‘third party’ (someone other than the requester), if revealing it would breach the terms of Data Protection Legislation. 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. Personal information must be processed lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner as set out by Art. 5 of the United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR).
In this case the exemption applies because the requested material contains information which would identify junior members of staff.
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 the first data protection principle of the Data Protection Act. As such, the names, positions and contact details of junior officials are withheld under section 40 (2) of the FOI Act.
Further guidance about the publication of junior staff names can be found here:
https://ico.org.uk/media/fororganisations/documents/1187/section_40_requests_for_personal_data_about_employees.pdf.
Further guidance on the application of this exemption cab be found here:
https://ico.org.uk/media/for-organisations/documents/2619056/s40-personal-information-section-40-regulation-13.pdf.