Agency worker: Agreements, Contracts, pay scales

Brent Council - INFORMATION REQUEST

Our Reference: 499775
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Dear Mr. Ingram

Thank you for your request for information received on 18 May 2009. We aim
to respond to your request within 20 working days.

Yours sincerely

Brent ITU
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Brent Council - INFORMATION REQUEST

Our Reference: 499775
====================================================

Dear Mr. Ingram

I refer to the request for information you made on 18^th May in the
following terms:

Contracts or equivalent information/documents

1.1) Copies of any contracts you have for the provision of temporary
worker agency staff, with regards agency/temporary social
care/social worker staff/workers. Contracts you may have with individual
agency staff recruitment businesses/services, hereafter called 'Vendors'.
Or contracts you may have with organisations like, Comensura, Manpower,
Reed, hereafter called 'Managed Service Provider' who provide
Master/Vendor Neutral framework to managed all vendors on behalf of Public
Authorities like yourselves.

:- Hourly Pay scales/rates with regards agency/temporary social
care/social worker staff.

1.2) A list of each Vendor you use and copies of hourly pay-scales/rates
you hold for each Vendor. Whether or not you use
each Vendor via Managed Service Provider framework. Please ensure any
provided pay-scale information provided explains how many years of
experience is required to be applicable to any specific hourly rate.

1.3 A copy of any contract/agreement used by yourself or any Managed
Service Provider to manage individual Vendors through any Master/Vendor
Neutral framework you operate or participate in, this is sometimes called
a Panel Vendor Agreement.

Please also indicate whether any of the information requested 1.1, 1.2,
1.3 has ever been disclosed before under the FOI Act.

On 20^th May 2009 you varied your request by the addition of the
following.

Please add this to my request

Many public authorities release their contracts with private vendors in
line with the Freedom of Information Act. The exemption for commercial
interest under the Act (section 43) is a qualified exemption, which means
information can only be withheld if it is in the public¿s interest. The
public have an interest in knowing the terms of contracts awarded by
public authorities, whether or not public money changes hands immediately.

If you are relying on section 41 (the exemption for legal breach of
confidence) then I would like to know the following:

¿ When these confidentiality agreements were agreed

¿ All correspondence and email in which these confidentiality agreements
were discussed.

¿ The precise wording of the confidentiality agreements

Please accept my apologies for the delay in responding to your request.
Following careful consideration, I regret to inform you that in
accordance with Section 12 we have decided not to respond to this request.
This is because we estimate that doing so is likely to exceed the
Appropriate Limit. For local government the Appropriate Limit is set at
£450, calculated at £25 per person hour. This gives 18 hours to
identify whether information is held and to locate, retrieve and extract
the same. The Appropriate Limit is likely to be exceeded for the
following reasons:-

* Whilst the Council has a Managed Service Provider contract this is not
exclusive and identifying contractual arrangements outside this would
involve detailed enquiries with individual services of which there are
approximately 70 in the Council
* The request extends to contracts and terms negotiated with individual
suppliers of which there are nearly 1000.

However, we have considered what information can be provided within the
Appropriate Limit and accordingly a copy of the contract with the Managed
Service Provider is attached together with the list of suppliers/ vendors.
We have redacted the names of the Managed Service Provider’s contacts
in accordance with Section 40 of the Act since these are no longer current
and disclosure would therefore breach the first and second data protection
principles.

Because we estimate that the Appropriate Limit would be exceeded we have
not checked whether any of the information requested has been disclosed
previously.

Please note that the information provided may be subject to copyright and
you may require further permission from the Council to re-use it. If you
require further guidance please write to the IT Standards Manager (contact
details below).

If you are dissatisfied with the response or how the Council has handled
your request you can complain to the Council by writing to the following
address: IT Standards Manager at Brent Council, Room 105, Brent Town Hall,
Forty Lane, Wembley, Middlesex HA9 9HD, telephone 020 8937 1402, e-mail
[Brent Borough Council request email]. It is the Council's policy to ensure that, where
practicable, your complaint is dealt with by someone who was not involved
in the original decision.

You also have a right of appeal about our decision to the Information
Commissioner, however, the Information Commissioner will not normally
consider an appeal until you have exhausted your rights of redress and
complaint to the Council. The Information Commissioner can be contacted as
follows:
Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow,
Cheshire SK9 5AF; Telephone: 01625 545 700,
www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk
As part of our commitment to improve our service to our customers we would
welcome any feedback on the way that we have dealt with your request.

Yours sincerely

Stephen F Williams,
for Brent ITU
[email address]

Ben Ingram To [email address]
<[FOI #12064 email]> cc
Subject Re: Freedom of Information
19/05/2009 23:53 request - Agency worker:
Agreements, Contracts, pay
scales

Dear Sir or Madam,

Please add this to my request

Many public authorities release their contracts with private
vendors in line with the Freedom of Information Act. The exemption
for commercial interest under the Act (section 43) is a qualified
exemption, which means information can only be withheld if it is in
the public’s interest. The public have an interest in knowing the
terms of contracts awarded by public authorities, whether or not
public money changes hands immediately.

If you are relying on section 41 (the exemption for legal breach of
confidence) then I would like to know the following:

• When these confidentiality agreements were agreed

• All correspondence and email in which these confidentiality
agreements were discussed.

• The precise wording of the confidentiality agreements

Yours sincerely,

Ben Ingram

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Apologies

Saved in earlier version of excel.

Stephen Williams
FOI & DPA Consultant
Brent ITU

020 8937 1426

Floor 5
349-357 High Road
Wembley
HA9 6BZ

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