Request
I would like to submit a request for some information from the organisation, in relation to their contract’s register.
The full contract register should display all the organisations existing/live contracts I would like the register to display the following columns/headings:
1. Contract Reference -Unique reference number associated with the contract.
2. Contract Title
3. Procurement Category –Please state the category name of the contract, I wish to know the category the contract is under.
4. Supplier Name
5. Spend (Total, Annual or contract value)
6. Contract’s Duration
7. Contract’s Extensions
8. Contract’s Start Date
9. Contract’s Expiry Date
10. Contract Description [Please provide me with as much detail as possible.]
11. Contact Owner (Person that manages the contract register)
12. CPV codes/Pro-Class
Contract Data/API Contact Details
1. Can you also provide me with contact details of the person responsible for the actual contract’s register or someone responsible for API? [Name, Job Title, Telephone, Email Address] At the very least provide me with their actual job title.
(Meaning of API “a set of functions and procedures that allow the creation of applications which access the features or data of an operating system, application, or other service.)
1. If the organisation has a CRM system or a similar system, there should be a facility to download and extract contract data.
2. You may forward me a Weblink to a portal to download the contract register, please make sure all the organisation’s contracts are provided as doing prior research I have found that most organisations have only uploaded a small portion of all their contracts.
3. For those organisations planning to make an exemption around spend, the spend information I have requested is an overall figure and I am not requesting a complete breakdown of services relating to the spend.
Please provide me with the contract’s register file in an excel format.
Outcome
Information held elsewhere.
Response
I can confirm that The National Archives holds information relevant to your request and we are pleased to be able to provide some of this information to you.
Unfortunately, we are unable to provide you with all the information you have requested because it is covered under the exemption at section 21 of the Freedom of Information Act. This exempts information readily available to the applicant by other means. For further information about why this exemption has been applied, please see the explanatory Annex at the end of this letter.
In line with the Public Contracts Regulations 2015, The National Archives publishes information about all contract awards with a value of £10,000 or more in the public domain on the Contracts Finder website – https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Search – and has done so since that website was first introduced in February 2015.
You also asked about contract owners and who is responsible for maintaining our contracts register. This is the responsibility of our Head of Procurement, Project Delivery & Contract Management, Darren Austin:
Darren Austin
Head of Procurement, Project Delivery & Contract Management
+44 (0)20 8876 3444 ext. 2115
The National Archives, Kew, Surrey TW9 4DU
EXPLANATORY ANNEX
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 on a government website (Contracts Finder).
Further guidance on the application of this exemption can be found at: https://ico.org.uk/media/for-organisations/documents/1203/information-reasonably-accessible-to-the-applicant-by-other-means-sec21.pdf.