Karen Webb
DE&S Policy Secretariat Weapons
Defence Equipment and Support
Ministry of Defence
Spur 5, E Block
Tel: 01225 4 67738
MOD Ensleigh
Fax: 01225 4 72164
BATH BA1 5AB
Email:[email address]
Mr C Taylor
Our Reference: 02-08-2010-101005-003
[email address]
Date:
8
September
2010
Dear Mr Taylor
REQUEST FOR INFORMATION: RELEASE OF INFORMATION UNDER THE FREEDOM
OF INFORMATION ACT 2000
Thank you for your email of 31 July 2010, about the use of Open Source Software (OSS) in
the Ministry of Defence (MOD). This has been considered to be a request for information in
accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
I would like to apologise for the delay in replying, but it would appear that an administrative
oversight made it difficult to identify the appropriate area within the Ministry of Defence to deal
with your request. However, it has now been allocated to me to deal with.
The MOD follows the cross Government guidance on the use of OSS. Software applications
used by the MOD are selected on their ability to meet our business requirements, taking full
account of value for money, long-term viability, security and interoperability. The majority of
MOD IT systems, services and applications are procured commercially. MOD does not control
the software that is used in the construct of such products and services, and any OSS used
will be the choice of the commercial supplier, providing it meets our requirements. The
supplier will assess the appropriateness and benefits of OSS against a range of criteria, on a
case by case basis. However, all software, whether proprietary or open source has to be
evaluated and accredited by the MOD before it can be used. This includes an analysis of the
security risk to IT systems, and is designed to ensure that all technical countermeasures have
been applied.
You asked for a list of each IT project potentially costing over £1M, indicating its purpose and
where the cross Government guidance on OSS has/has not been applied. This information is
not held in the format requested, and to gather and collate it would involve canvassing
individual business areas across the Department. It has been assessed, therefore, that the
effort required to obtain this information and then determine whether, or not, it could be
released or whether it would fall, in full or in part, within the remit of any exemptions under the
FOI Act, would exceed the appropriate limit. This limit is specified in FOI regulations and for
central government is set at £600. This represents the estimated cost of one person spending
three and a half working days in determining whether the Department holds the information,
and locating, retrieving and extracting it. Under the terms of the FOI Act, this means that we
are not obliged to comply with this aspect of your request.
If you are not satisfied with this response or you wish to complain about any aspect of the
handling of your request, then you should contact me in the first instance. If informal resolution
is not possible and you are still dissatisfied then you may apply for an independent internal
review by contacting the Head of Corporate Information, 6th Floor, MOD Main Building,
Whitehall, SW1A 2HB (e-mail
[email address]). Please note that any request for an
internal review must be made within 40 working days of the date on which the attempt to
reach informal resolution has come to an end.
If you remain dissatisfied following an internal review, you may take your complaint to the
Information Commissioner under the provisions of Section 50 of the Freedom of Information
Act. Please note that the Information Commissioner will not investigate your case until the
MOD internal review process has been completed. Further details of the role and powers of
the Information Commissioner can be found on the Commissioner's website,
h
ttp://www.ico.gov.uk.
Yours sincerely
Karen Webb
