FOIA 14B

Notice of determination of request - edited disclosure/refusal

Introduction

This document sets out Hampshire County Council's response to your recent request for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. The form used is a general one, designed to cater for a range of types of response to requests.

Section 1 summarises your particular request. In Sections 2 - 7, those parts marked with an [ X ] apply to your request. Sections 8 - 10 apply in all cases.

“The Act” means the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

“Your request” means your request under Part 1 of the Act as summarised in Section 1 of this document.

Name: Mr Boucher

Address:

Not supplied

E-mail address: [FOI #27842 email]

Telephone number: Not supplied

Description of information sought:

“I am interested in the amounts paid by each school in Hampshire to third parties in relation to temporary staffing cover. My hope is to receive an electronic breakdown of amounts paid

(a) through the department's purchase ledger by school and

(b) in grants, by grantee.

Notes:

1. I would like the information in electronic format. This should avoid any printing cost issues.

2. In order to avoid your having to collate information from peripheral systems, I am willing to accept information only from your main system (I would like you to advise which system this is). By main system I mean the system that handles the largest part of the department's expenditure. If grants and supplier payments are made through separate systems, then I would like you to choose the main system for each.

3. The information I require for each supplier/grantee is: Supplier name and total amount paid.

4. I would like the information to cover the year 2008/9. I would accept 2007/8 figures if this is not possible.

This was subsequently clarified with the following information:

1. I wish to receive information on temporary staff only, not full time contracted staff.

2. All temporary supply staff in schools, not just those in teaching posts. I would like the different classifications of cover staff however to be shown on the data if possible.

3. Total expenditure from each school, broken down to show payments made to each individual supplier of staff. If it is hard to obtain individual information on foundation schools, I will accept the best data available for these.

4. Please disregard my reference to grants. I simply wish to receive information on temporary staffing spend.

And further clarification:

Just to clarify point 1. We [HCC] sometimes employ temporary/supply staff on normal rates of pay and pay them directly through the payroll. A typical example would be a short term contract to cover maternity leave. Do you want such contracts included or excluded?

Answer: Please include these payments.”

Date of receipt of request: 27^th January 2010

In general, the County Council has a duty to inform you in writing whether it holds information of the description specified in your request. This is known as `the duty to confirm or deny'. However, where the information sought is subject to certain exemptions, this duty does not apply.

The position in relation to your request is as follows:

[ x] the County Council holds information of the description specified in your request.

[x ] the information sought is subject to the exemptions specified later in this notice.

[ ] Decision - unedited disclosure

The information held by the County Council within the description specified in your request is enclosed.

[x] Decision - edited disclosure

The information held by the County Council within the description specified in your request is enclosed. Please note that this information has been edited to remove information which is exempt information. For further details, see Section 4: `Exemptions'.

[ ] Decision - refusal to disclose

The request is refused on the following grounds: [ ]

[ ] The information is exempt information under the Act. Details of any exemption that applies, and the reasons why it applies are given in Section 4: `Exemptions'.

[ ] The County Council estimates that the cost of complying with your request would exceed the sum of £450.

[ ] However, the County Council is prepared to comply with your request on payment by you of a fee of £

[ ] Your request is vexatious

[ ] The County Council has previously complied with a request from you for information, to which your request is identical or substantially similar, and a reasonable interval has not elapsed between compliance with the previous request and the making of your request

[ ] Decision - notice of application of qualified exemption

The County Council is relying on a claim that certain information covered by your request is subject to a qualified exemption under the Act and has not yet reached a decision as to the application of the public interest test. For an explanation of the public interest test, see Section 5. Details of any exemption that applies and the reasons why it applies are given in Section 4: `Exemptions'.

The County Council estimates that a decision on the application of the public interest test will be made and communicated to you by the following date:

If it is not possible to make a decision by this date you will be informed, given reasons why, and a new date will be given by which the decision is expected to be made.

[ x] The exemptions detailed below apply:-

Where a qualified exemption has been relied upon, it is necessary to consider whether the public interest in not releasing the information requested outweighs the public interest in disclosing it. This is known as the `public interest test'.

[x ] The public interest test has been applied, as follows:

Title of qualified exemption: Commercial prejudice

Factors considered relevant to the public interest in disclosing the information:

The promotion of transparency, accountability and participation in provision of public services and the spending of public money.

If competitors were able to target specific schools for the supply of services, this might lead to increased competition in the marketplace and result in the reduction of prices, thereby reducing the cost to public expenditure on temporary staff.

Factors considered relevant to the public interest in not releasing the information:

The likelihood of prejudice to third parties ie individual suppliers whose information would be disclosed - disclosure would be likely to disclose how suppliers are performing in the local marketplace and how much business they are conducting with individual schools. This could allow competitors not currently in this marketplace to target individual schools for business to the prejudice of existing suppliers and on an unequal footing. Existing suppliers have been consulted regarding disclosure of their information and have expressed their concerns.

Disclosure could also prejudice the position of the Council by encouraging collusion between businesses that would otherwise compete with each other if they became sufficiently well informed about each others performance in the market.

If other competitors were to target existing suppliers, it is equally possible that while prices might be reduced in the short term, in the long term such prices might prove not viable and that prices might return to higher levels or even that some suppliers might be driven out of business altogether, as this is a highly competitive marketplace. This would not be in the public interest as competition could be reduced in the longer term.

The information requested is still current and would be relevant to the current trading position of the suppliers concerned.

Conclusion: Redacted disclosure

Reasons:

Much of the information requested can be supplied, with only the name of individual suppliers and the breakdown of the amount spent by individual schools with each supplier being withheld. The overall amount spent by each school has been disclosed. On balance , it is considered that the public interest is best served by maintaining the exemption in respect of the redacted information.

The County Council will normally provide the information in your preferred format, unless this is not reasonably practicable. In deciding whether it is reasonably practicable, the County Council will consider all the circumstances, including the cost of doing so.

The table below shows your preferred format and the actual format of the information we are sending to you.

[ ] The County Council has complied with your preference.

[ ] Further to Section 11(3) of the Act, it was not reasonably practicable for the County Council to comply with your preference for the following reason(s):

[x] You did not express any preference.

The County Council has a procedure for dealing with complaints including complaints about the handling of requests for information.

[ ] A copy of the complaints procedure is attached.

[x] A copy of the complaints procedure can be found at www3.hants.gov.uk/factsheets/factsheet4.htm

Further to Section 50 of the Act, you may apply to the Information Commissioner for a decision if you feel your request for information has not been dealt with in accordance with the requirements of Part 1 of the Act. On receiving your application the Commissioner will make a decision, unless any of the following applies:

When the Commissioner receives an application, he will either notify you that he has not made any decision as a result of the application and give you his reasons for not doing so, or serve notice of his decision (a `decision notice') on you and the County Council. Where the decision is that the County Council has failed to comply with certain requirements under the Act, the decision notice must specify the steps to be taken by the County Council for complying with that requirement and the period within which they must be taken. The decision notice must contain details of a further right of appeal to the Information Tribunal. Where a decision notice requires steps to be taken by the County Council within a specified period, that period must not expire before the end of the period within which an appeal can be brought against the notice. If such an appeal is brought, no step which is affected by the appeal need be taken before the determination or withdrawal of the appeal.

Where information has been supplied, you are advised that the copyright in that material is owned by Hampshire County Council and/or its contractor/s unless otherwise stated. The supply of documents under the Act does not give you an automatic right to re-use those documents in a way that would infringe copyright, for example by making multiple copies, publishing and issuing copies to the public.

Brief extracts of the material can be reproduced under the “fair dealing” provisions of the Copyright Design and Patents Act 1998 (S.29 and S.30) for the purposes of research for non-commercial purposes, private study, criticism, review and news reporting.

Details of the arrangements for reusing the material owned by Hampshire County Council and/or its contractor(s) can be obtained by contacting the Chief Executive's Department, The Castle, Winchester, Hampshire, SO23 8UJ.

Authorisation to re-use copyright material not owned by Hampshire County Council and/or its contractors, should be sought from the copyright holders concerned. If in doubt, you should contact the Chief Executive's Department in the first instance.

Signed: ………Barbara Sorkin……………………………….

Date: …………17 March 2010 ………………………………

Name: Barbara Sorkin

Designation: Data Protection & Quality Adviser

Address for communications about this notice: Chief Executive's Department, Hampshire County Council, The Castle, Winchester, Hampshire, SO23 8UJ.

E-mail: [email address]

Please quote this reference on any correspondence: 2241 Boucher

FOIA 14B

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FOIA 14B

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