Mr Keith Griffiths

[FOI #33149 email]

2 July 2010

INTERNAL REVIEW OF RFI 3404: Procurement of Contractors and Construction Consultancy Services

Dear Mr Griffiths

Thank you for your e-mail of 23 June 2010 requesting an internal review into the handling of your request to Defra of 20 April 2010 about the procurement of contractors and construction consultancy services. In accordance with Defra's internal review procedures, your case has been reviewed by the Information Rights Team within the department in discussion with colleagues who handled your original request. We have concluded that the department did not fulfill its obligations under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA), in that it did not respond to this request within 20 working days. I set out below a fuller explanation of our decision.

Chronology

You e-mailed Defra Helpline on 20 April 2010 requesting the following information:

1. How Defra procures Construction Consultancy Services

2. How Defra procures Construction Contractors

3. If by Defra's own framework, please tell me:

a. The titles and content of the relevant frameworks

b. Who is on the current frameworks

c. The start and end dates of the frameworks

d. Any possible extension periods to the frameworks

e. The name and contact e-mail of person responsible for the

frameworks.

This request was sent by Helpline to one of our policy divisions the same morning. They decided that they did not hold the relevant information and that it should be passed to the Estates Division of Defra. Unfortunately this was only communicated by telephone to a member of Information Rights Team, who advise on the handling of requests, rather than following the correct procedure of notifying the Helpline, who are responsible for the allocation of requests, by e-mail. Consequently there was no record of this request having been transferred to the correct business area within the department, and the request remained unanswered.

Defra always strives to meet the 20 working day deadline for responding to requests made under the Freedom of Information Act and we very much regret that we were unable to do so in this case. We are committed to ensuring the effective operation of freedom of information legislation and are working to identify and implement best practice in dealing with requests for information in compliance with the legislation.

Please accept my apologies on behalf of the department. I have forwarded your request to Estates Division and I understand that they have responded to your request today. If you remain dissatisfied with the result of this internal review, you have the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:

Information Commissioner's Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

http://www.ico.gov.uk/complaints.aspx

Yours sincerely,

By e-mail

Guy Mawhinney