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Mr Hedley Date: 13^th April 2009

Dear Mr Hedley

Freedom of Information Request

I refer to your recent Freedom of Information Request. Your request asked for the following information: -

Your request

Under the Freedom of Information Act, could you please provide me with a full hierarchical organisation chart, for your IT department and/or division? This should be from the most senior IT officer/exec position, down to the first line.

Please note: I'm not requesting individual names, but just job titles and the amount of jobs in each position.

Council response

I can confirm the following information with regards to your FOI request above.

The Council has one Information Security Officer to oversee the Council's ICT security, the remaining ICT structure is managed by BT.

On 1^st October 2008 the Council entered into a 10 year Strategic Partnership deal with BT to provide the Council's ICT services. Under this arrangement all contracts and staff were transferred to BT to oversee the running of the project. Under this arrangement all departmental structures are deemed to belong to BT and are therefore considered commercially sensitive for commercial reasons. It is on this basis that your request is refused. This is explained more in the “Grounds for refusal” section..

Grounds for refusal

The Council is citing Exemption 43 (Commercial Interests) under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 for refusal. The Council considers that such a disclosure would prejudice BT's commercial arrangements, and would in our opinion, constitute a breach of our contractual arrangements.

Public Interest Test

Before relying on Exemption 43, the Council also has to apply the public interest test. The Council must consider whether the public interest test in withholding information outweighs the public interest test in disclosing the information

It is clear that there is public interest in how the Council delivers its ICT services and how it achieves its best value objectives. It is also clear that the Council has a duty to comply with its duties and commercial projects in an appropriate, transparent and professional manner, where applicable.

However, one must also consider the significant impact that such a disclosure would have on our partners as well on the Council:

BT's point of view is that:

BT acts in an extremely competitive market place. The disclosure of BT's staff structures may be of particular value to external competitors who may try to compete and undercut them in future tender agreements with the Council;

Disclosure may adversely affect the Council's bargaining position and those partied to the agreement in future negotiations if trade secrets are disclosed;

From the Council's point of view it may:

Discourage organisations to tender for contracts with the Council which may jeopardise our value for money initiatives;
Create uncertainty with the existing private contracts we hold.

I hope this reply is to your satisfactory and the information provided is of assistance.

Copyright procedure

Please note that the information supplied to you continues to be protected by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. You are free to use this information for your own purposes, including any non-commercial research you re doing and news reporting. Any other re-use of this information, for example commercial publication requires the permission of the Council as the Copyright holder. All re-use requests will be treated under the Re-Use of Public Information Regulation 2005.

Appeal procedure

Should you wish to appeal against this decision you can write to the Records Management Team Leader to have your case reviewed by our Internal Review Panel. This should be sent to us within four weeks and must clearly state the reasons for your appeal and your FOI reference number. The Records Management Team address is as follows: Records Management Team, Town Hall and Civic Buildings, Westoe Road, South Shields, Tyne and Wear, NE33 2RL.

Information Commissioner's office (ICO)

Should you remain dissatisfied with the final outcome you can write to the Information Commissioner to ask for an independent review. The Information Commissioner is the Government's Independent Body responsible for overseeing the Freedom of Information Act 2000, the Data Protection Act 1998 and the Environmental Information Regulations 2004.

Please do note that the ICO will only review cases that have exhausted the Council's internal appeal procedures. All correspondence to the ICO must quote the Council's reference number and the reasons for your appeal.

The ICO's contact details are as follows: Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, SK9 5AF. More information can be found on the ICO's website at www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk.

If you have any further queries about this matter then please do not hesitate to contact me on the number below:

Yours sincerely

Alan Holt

Head of Strategic Partnership

Tel: 0191 424 6600

Email: [email address]