Outcome
Some information provided.
Request and response
Telephony and UC/Collaboration
1. Please confirm the manufacturer of your telephony system(s) that are currently in place?
Avoira Ltd. is the supplier of our telecommunications service.
2. When was the installation date of your telephony equipment?
The contract start date was in Qtr. 4 FY 2020-2021.
Information regarding specific start and end dates is exempt under section 31 (1) (a) of the FOI Act.
3. When is your contract renewal date?
The contract renewal date is in Qtr. 4 FY 2023-2024.
Information regarding specific start and end dates is exempt under section 31 (1) (a) of the FOI Act.
4. Who maintains your telephony system(s)?
Avoira Ltd.
5. Please confirm value of the initial project.
Initial contract cost £22,500.
6. Please confirm the total ongoing annual spend on telephony [systems]
Annual average spend £70,000.
7. Please confirm the annual support cost for your telephony system.
Annual support is included in the average spend listed in question 6.
8. Do you use Unified Communications or Collaboration tools, if so which ones?
Yes we do use Unified Communications & Collaboration Tools.
Disclosing software systems will reveal the software brand and information regarding software brands is exempt under section 31 (1) (a) of the FOI Act.
Contact Centre
9. Please confirm the manufacturer of your contact centre system(s) that are currently in place?
Avoira Ltd. is the supplier of our telecommunications service.
10. When was the installation date of your contact centre infrastructure?
The contract start date was in Qtr. 4 FY 2020-2021.
Information regarding specific start and end dates is exempt under section 31 (1) (a) of the FOI Act.
11. When is your contract renewal date?
The contract renewal date is in Qtr. 4 FY 2023-2024.
Information regarding specific start and end dates is exempt under section 31 (1) (a) of the FOI Act.
12. Who maintains your contact centre system(s)?
Avoira Ltd.
13. Please confirm value of the initial project.
Please see answer to question 5
14. Please confirm the value of annual support/maintenance services (in £)? And overall annual spend for the contact centre.
Annual spend for the contact centre is included in our overall contract so we are unable to give an itemised figure.
15. How many contact centre agents do you have?
6.
16. Do agents work from home? Or just your offices?
Agents work from home.
17. Do you use a CRM in the contact centre? What platform is used?
No.
18. Do you use a knowledge base / knowledge management platform? What platform is used?
No.
Connectivity and Network Services
19. Who provides your WAN and internet connectivity and the annual spend on each?
Key Suppliers:
AdEPT Telecom plc. & Exponential-e.
AdEPT Telecom plc – £25,920.
Exponential-e – £11,805.70.
20. Have you, or do you plan to deploy SD Wan services?
No.
21. Have you got SIP trunks, if so who from and confirm annual spend
Yes we do. This is procured alongside our telephony contracts so is not paid for independently. As this element is not itemised we are unable to confirm the annual spend for this element individually.
22. Please confirm who provides your LAN, WIFI and Security Infrastructure
Disclosing software systems will reveal the software brand and information regarding software brands is exempt under section 31 (1) (a) of the FOI Act.
23. Please confirm your annual spend on each?
LAN Infrastructure: £113,000.
Wi-Fi Infrastructure: £2,000.
Security Infrastructure: £197,000.
24. Please confirm your data centre switching and security infrastructure and have you deployed cloud based security and threat management?
Disclosing software systems will reveal the software brand and information regarding software brands is exempt under section 31 (1) (a) of the FOI Act.
Organisation
25. How many employees do you have overall within your organisation?
543.
26. Can you provide contact details for your procurement lead / category manager for these services?
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: http://apps.nationalarchives.gov.uk/contact/
27. Can you provide names and contact details for the following people within your organisation? CIO/IT Director, Head of IT, Head of Digital Transformation, Head of Customer Services
It is standard practice to withhold the names of officials below Senior Civil Service level. However, to aid transparency of how our organisation is structured and run, TNA publishes the names of senior staff members (down to the level of Heads of Department) on our website. TNA’s organisational chart can be found here on our website.
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 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
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