Dear Mr Williams,

Thank you for your e-mail of 1 November, where you have requested the name of the agents/broker used to arrange charter and scheduled service removals and the value of the contract with these agents/brokers. This request falls to be dealt with under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

The agents/broker contracted by the United Kingdom Border Agency (UKBA) to provide a service to expedite the removal of persons from the United Kingdom by either schedule or charter flights is Carlson Wagonlit Travel.

With regard to the value of the contract with this agent/broker, I can confirm that the UKBA holds the information that you requested. However I am not obliged to disclose it to you. After careful consideration we have decided that this information is exempt from disclosure by virtue of Section 43(2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. This provides that information can be withheld where disclosure would, or would be likely to, prejudice the commercial interests of any persons.

Disclosing this information would be likely to prejudice the commercial interests of both UKBA and those companies with whom UKBA enters into contracts. In making this assessment UKBA has to consider the willingness of companies wishing to contract with UKBA.

In terms of the value of the contract these matters are extremely sensitive from a commercial perspective and as such the release of this data would severely compromise the position of UKBA and its service provider.

Likewise, when undertaking any competitive tendering process, releasing the value of the current contract would weaken UKBA's position to re-tender the contract in a competitive environment.

This exemption requires us to consider whether, in every respect the public interest in maintaining the exemption stated above, outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.

We have considered the public interest in disclosing the information to you. There will be a public interest in immediate disclosure to ensure that there is full transparency in UKBA's use of public funds and in particular to maintain the Agency's accountability to taxpayers. Disclosure of this information would also enable the public to assess whether or not UKBA is getting best value for money in terms of its contracts with this broker/agent.

We have also considered the public interest in maintaining the exemption to communicate. There is a public interest in Government department's being able to secure contracts that represent value for money and anything that would undermine this is not in the public interest. Value for money can be best obtained where there is a healthy competitive environment, coupled with the protection of Government's commercial relationships with industry, were this not the case, there would be a risk that:

We have therefore concluded that the balance of the public interests identified lies in favour of maintaining the exemption. This is because the overall public interest lies in ensuring that UKBA's ability to protect its commercial competitiveness is not prejudiced.

If you are dissatisfied with this response you may request an independent internal review of our handling of your request.  Internal review requests should be submitted within two months of the UKBA sending a substantive reply to your original request and should be addressed  to:

Information Access Policy Team

11^th Floor

Lunar House

40 Wellesley Road

Croydon

CR9 2BY

During the independent review the department's handling of your information request will be reassessed by 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,

Immigration Group

Briefing & Correspondence Team