Information Management Services
PO Box 70
Morden
Surrey
SM4 9AE
By email
Mr Francis Irving
Tel 020 85442717
[FOI #31518 email]
Fax 020 85449825
www.hmrc.gov.uk
Date
26 April 2010
Our Ref
FOI 1400/10
Your Ref
________
Dear Mr Irving
APPLICATION UNDER THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOI)
I refer to your email dated 25 March 2010, requesting the following information under the
FOIA.
“
In 2004, HMRC signed a deal called "Aspire" with Capgemini to supply IT services. It is
described on the Capgemini website here: http://www.uk.capgemini.com/aspire/
Please send, or better upload to your website, copies of:
* The original Aspire contract or contracts with Capgemini.
* Supporting documents which effectively form a part of the contract.
* Any later agreements that altered the contract.
The information I am seeking here is exact details of the services
Capgemini contracted to supply, for what price, and under what
terms.
If you cannot provide all the information, please give reasons
under the FOI Act, but also give me any related or summary
information you can.”
An applicant’s right in section 1 Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) is to be informed if
a public authority holds the information described in the request and, if that is the case, to
Information is available in large print, audio tape and Braille formats.
Type Talk service prefix number – 18001
have it communicated subject of course to other provisions of the Act such as costs and
exemptions.
I can confirm that HMRC holds information that falls within the description specified in your
request. However, we estimate that the cost of complying with it would exceed the
appropriate limit of £600. The appropriate limit is specified in regulations and for central
government is set at £600 based on staff time at £25 per hour. This represents the
estimated cost of one person spending 3½ working days determining if the department holds
the information; it includes locating, retrieving and extracting it. By setting the limit at £600
HMRC believes that Parliament struck the right balance between an applicant’s right to know
and the amount of resource a public authority could reasonably be expected to apply to give
effect to it. Consequently under section 12(1) of the FOIA the department is not obliged to
comply with your request and we will not be processing it further.
If you are able to narrow the scope of your request, the department may be able to provide
the information because it would cost less than the appropriate limit to do so. Any
reformulated request will be treated as a fresh application. I would however point out that
any reformulated request in respect of sight of Aspire contract or contracts with Capgemini
would likely be refused if HMRC felt that putting information into the public domain would be
likely to prejudice the commercial interests of Capgemini and / or it material subcontractors
and / or HMRC
Additional Information
Although, because of the fees regulations, the Act allows HMRC to decline to deal with the
request as a whole, in the course of considering costs we did find some readily available
information; I am providing it. This is given outside the Act and I hope you find it useful.
I enclose an overview of the ASPIRE contract which I hope provides you with information
you require.
In addition and for your ease of reference I have attached
· A copy of the Public Accounts Committee Twenty-eighth Report of Session 2006-07
“HM Revenue and Customs ASPIRE – the re-competition of outsourced IT services”.
· A copy of the National Audit Office’s Report dated July 2006 “HM Revenue and Customs
ASPIRE – the re-competition of outsourced IT services”.
The information supplied to you continues to be protected by the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988. You are free to use it for your own purposes, including any non-
commercial research you are doing and for the purposes of news reporting. Any other re-
use, for example commercial publication, would require the permission of the copyright
holder. Most documents supplied by HMRC will have been produced by government officials
and will be Crown Copyright. You can find details on the arrangements for re-using Crown
Copyright on HMS Online (internet access required) at:
http://www.hmso.gov.uk/copyright/licences/click-use-home.htm
Information you receive which is not subject to Crown Copyright continues to be protected
by the copyright of the person, or organisation, from which the information originated. You
must ensure that you gain their permission before reproducing any third party (non Crown
Copyright) information.
If you are not happy with this reply you may request a review by writing to HMRC FOI Team,
Room 1C/25, 100 Parliament Street London SWIA 2BQ. You must request a review within 2
months of the date of this letter. It would assist our review if you set out which aspects of the
reply concern you and why you are dissatisfied.
If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have the right to apply
directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. Generally, the Information
Commissioner cannot make a decision unless you have exhausted the complaints
procedure provided by HMRC. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:
Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
If you have any queries about this letter, please contact me. Please remember to quote the
reference number above on any future communications.
Yours sincerely
Eileen Tully
HM Revenue and Customs
Information Management Solutions
Freedom of Information Manager
