Outcome
Successful.
Request and response
Contract 1:
1. Current Lines/Voice Services (Analogue, ISDN VOIP, SIP etc) Provider – Please can you provide me with the name of the supplier for the contract.
British Telecom
8×8 (UK) Ltd
2. Fixed Line – Contract Renewal Date – please provide day, month and year (month and year are also acceptable). If this is a rolling contract please provide me with the rolling date of the contract. If there is more than one supplier please split the renewal dates up into however many suppliers
British Telecom – Rolling contract – each calendar month.
Information regarding specific start and end dates is exempt under section 31 (1) (a) of the FOI Act.
3. Fixed Line – Contract Duration – the number of years the contract is for each provider
British Telecom – Rolling contract.
4. Type of Lines – Please can you split the type of lines per each supplier? PSTN, Analogue, SIP
British Telecom – PSTN
8×8 (UK) Ltd – SIP
5. Number of Lines – Please can you split the number of lines per each supplier? SIP trunks, PSN Lines, Analogue Lines
British Telecom – 7 PSTN
8×8 (UK) Ltd – 2 SIP trunks
Contract 2:
6. Minutes/Landline Provider – Supplier’s name (NOT Mobiles) if there is no information available please can you provide further insight into why?
British Telecom
8×8 (UK) Ltd
7. Minutes/Landline Contract Renewal Date – please provide day, month and year (month and year is also acceptable). If this is a rolling contract please provide me with the rolling date of the contract.
British Telecom – Rolling contract
8×8 (UK) Ltd – Qtr 4 FY 2020-2021
Information regarding specific start and end dates is exempt under section 31 (1) (a) of the FOI Act.
8. Minutes Landline Monthly Spend – Monthly average spend on calls for each provider. An estimate or average is acceptable
British Telecom – £0.25p plus VAT
8×8 (UK) Ltd – £200 plus VAT
9. Minute’s Landlines Contract Duration: the number of years the contract is with the supplier.
British Telecom – Rolling contract
8×8 (UK) Ltd – 1 Year extension
10. Number of Extensions – Please state the number of telephone extensions the organisation currently has. An estimate or average is acceptable.
British Telecom – 5
8×8 (UK) Ltd – 652
Contract 3:
11. Fixed Broadband Provider – Supplier’s name if there is not information available please can you provide further insight into why?
British Telecom
12. Fixed Broadband Renewal Date – please provide day, month and year (month and year is also acceptable). If this is a rolling contract please provide me with the rolling date of the contract. If there is more than one supplier please split the renewal dates up into however many suppliers
Rolling contract – each calendar month
Information regarding specific start and end dates is exempt under section 31 (1) (a) of the FOI Act.
13. Fixed Broadband Annual Average Spend – Annual average spend for each broadband provider. An estimate or average is acceptable.
£1,150 Plus VAT
Contract 4:
14. WAN Provider –please provide me with the main supplier(s) if there is no information available please can you provide further insight into why?
AdEPT Telecom plc
Exponential-e
15. WAN Contract Renewal Date – please provide day, month and year (month and year are also acceptable). If this is a rolling contract please provide me with the rolling date of the contract. If there is more than one supplier please split the renewal dates up into however many suppliers
AdEPT Telecom plc – Q2 2023-2024
Exponential-e – Q1 2021-2022
Information regarding specific start and end dates is exempt under section 31 (1) (a) of the FOI Act.
16. Contract Description: Please can you provide me with a brief description of the contract
AdEPT Telecom plc – Dedicated Internet service with failover
Exponential-e – Dedicated Internet service with failover
17. The number of sites: Please state the number of sites the WAN covers. Approx. will do.
One
18. WAN Annual Average Spend- Annual average spend for each WAN provider. An estimate or average is acceptable.
AdEPT Telecom plc – £14,300 Plus VAT
Exponential-e – £12,000 Plus VAT
19. For each WAN contract can you please provide me with information on how this was procured, especially around those procurement that used frameworks, please provide me with the framework reference.
AdEPT Telecom plc – RM3808-Network-Services-2 framework
Exponential-e – RM1045 Network Services framework
20. Internal Contact: please can you send me there full contact details including contact number and email and job title for all the contracts above.
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/
EXPLANATORY ANNEX
Exemptions applied
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:
http://ico.org.uk/for_organisations/guidance_index/~/media/documents/library/Freedom_of_Information/Detailed_specialist_guides/personal-information-section-40-and-regulation-13-foia-and-eir-guidance.pdf
Section 31: Law Enforcement
We are unable to provide you with information regarding 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 procedure and contracts. 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