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Headquarters

Parliamentary & Correspondence Management Team

8^th Floor, Globe House

89 Eccleston Square

London

SW1V 1PN

Tel (0300) 222 0000

Fax (0870) 336 9175

Email [Identity & Passport Service request email]

Web www.ips.gov.uk

Ms Sue D Nym

Email: [FOI #1562 email]

Our reference: FOICR 9964/08

5 September 2008

Dear Ms Sue D Nym

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST

Thank you for your email of 2 August in which you have requested a copy of the contract with Thales Information Systems to support the Identity and Passport Service(IPS) in delivering the early releases of the National Identity Scheme, including all appendices, schedules, technical manuals, work orders and other such supplementary information.

Under section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act, the Identity and Passport Service is not obliged to comply with any information request where the prescribed cost of supplying you with the information exceeds £600. The £600 limit applies to all central government departments and is based on work being carried out at a rate of £25 per hour, which equates to 3½ days work per request. Prescribed costs include those which cover the cost of locating and retrieving information, and preparing our response to you. They do not include considering whether any information is exempt from disclosure, overheads such as heating or lighting, or disbursements such as photocopying or postage.

The information requested is contained within a number of documents that comprise a `Service Agreement' under the National Identity Scheme Strategic Supplier Group framework. The documents that you have requested amount to circa 2,000 pages of information. These documents comprise a Framework Agreement which sets out the core terms for contracts awarded, a Service Agreement which contains conditions specific to a contract and thirty-six Service Agreement Schedules and annexes. Throughout these documents is information subject to consideration of exemptions under the Freedom of Information Act including:

Information of a commercial nature such as pricing, specifications and supplier approaches to delivery. Such information would be likely (in part or whole) to be subject to exemption under Section 43 - commercial interests.
Personal information or data such as names and addresses of contractor and IPS personnel involved in the delivery of the contract. Such information would be likely (in part or whole) to be subject to exemption under section 40 of the act - Personal Data.
Information on approaches to security and policies related to a Programme where security of data is paramount. Such information would be likely (in part or whole) to be subject to exemption under Section 24 - National Security.

We have estimated that the cost of finding and removing such personal, commercial and security information from these documents would exceed the £600 limit and we are therefore unable to comply with the request. Specifying a narrower range of information that is of particular interest may help to bring your request within the limit. You should however be aware that if you break your request down into a series of smaller requests, we might, depending on the circumstances of the case, decline to answer if the aggregated cost of complying exceeds £600, as permitted by the Fees Regulations. Similarly, it should be noted that any future requests will be considered under the Freedom of Information Act and may or may not fall under any of the exemptions contained therein.

We hold the information that you are interest in, but have estimated that the cost of answering your request would exceed the £600 limit and we are therefore unable to comply with it.

If you are dissatisfied with this response you may request an independent internal review of our handling of your request by submitting your complaint within two months to the address below quoting reference: FOICR 9964/08.

Information Rights Team
Information and Record Management Service
Home Office
4th Floor, Seacole Building
2 Marsham Street
London
SW1P 4DF

During the independent review the department's handling of your information request will be reassessed by members of staff who were not involved in providing you with this response. Should you remain dissatisfied after this internal review, you will have a right of complaint to the Information Commissioner as established by section 50 of the Freedom of Information Act.

Yours sincerely,

On behalf of James Hall, Chief Executive

Identity and Passport Service

For advice on how and where to obtain a passport,

call the Passport Adviceline on 0300 222 0000

(24 hours a day, 7 days a week).

You can also email [email address]

or visit www.ips.gov.uk